Enter The Ninjaverse: Universal Deviations
by Bionic Stars
Summary: Every universe may be similar, but they must be different as well. As Lloyd explores the multiverse, he meets new worlds, new faces, and most importantly, new stories. Those stories for his new allies are far more different than he could have ever imagined. It is time to take a look into their Universal Deviations. [Companion Story to Enter the Ninjaverse]
1. Lloyd - Beginnings

"I won, Harumi."

Lloyd stood in the middle of the Ninjago Museum of HIstory. In front of him was the newest addition to the hall of villains. A new statue stood at the end of the hall, illuminated under lights to draw the eyes. Rather than just one, however, this one had two figures apart of it. He knew both of them well, since he'd beaten them both just a few months ago. One held four purple curved blades, another a simple red katana with a flourish on the hilt. The plaque read two names that Lloyd knew even better.

**Harumi and Emperor Garmadon | The Jade Princess and Revived Oni**

There was nobody else in the hall to see Lloyd as he starred the new addition down. There was nobody else here to look at him. He'd come right at the end of the day, and he was likely cutting into the time for the janitors to come and clean up. The new head of the museum -who thankfully wasn't a power mad twin- had given him permission to stay. He didn't intend for this to be long.

"I won," Lloyd said again, gripping his fists, "I did it. I beat you. I ruined your plans. You didn't break me like you wanted me to." There was no response.

"I saved Ninjago," Lloyd looked up, right into the statue Harumi's eyes, "My friends helped me get there, but I figured out what I needed to do when I fought him. The fight fueled him. You revived just the side of him that wanted to conquer, battle, all of that. And I figured out without that, he was nothing. He wasn't my father, at all. He didn't care about me, at all. And that's, that's how I won."

The statue didn't move. Lloyd looked straight into her eyes, as if expecting that she'd do something. When she didn't, he felt a pang go through his chest.

"Heh…." Lloyd let out a sigh and looked off towards the other statues, "It's, weird to see you with all these other guys. I mean, I think you belong with Chen, yeah, you both really knew how to manipulate people but… you didn't have any powers. Everyone else here, had something to make them evil. But, you were like me. You really didn't have anything. You only did what you thought, was right. I guess, you actually did the opposite of what I did. I mean, I went from hating the ninja to joining them. You did the opposite."

"...I don't know what I'm doing here…" Lloyd admitted with a sad smile, "Kai and Nya said that when they got sad about their parents they'd just, they'd talk. And, Zane said visiting the grave of someone you cared about helped too. They never found your body so… so I, I had to come here."

Lloyd's words caught in his throat. This was stupid. He was talking to a statue of Harumi, not the actual girl. He wanted to talk to her, not this. He wanted to say something and hear her biting response, hear the anger in her voice… see the hurt in her eyes. Something for him to respond to. He was just talking to a statue made to look angry now.

"I had a dream the other night," Lloyd coughed for a moment, "It… it's stupid, I know. But… but I dreamed that you didn't die that day. That I still beat Garmadon, and we captured you. And that… and that we were able to help you. We were able to get you to see how you being so angry, wasn't healthy. Kinda… kinda like what Wu did for me, when he took me in. I think, I know it ended, when you came up to me and said you forgave me, and I forgave you."

He could see it. He could see the face he'd seen in his dream. Harumi, the paint from her face gone, her hair knotted up against her head to show her full face, her eyes shining to him without that hatred that had swallowed up almost all of the memories he had of when she was 'good.' He could see her reaching out to him, holding his hand, and telling him that she knew all along he had never meant to hurt her the way he did. It was an image of Harumi he wished he'd been able to see.

"..." Lloyd shut his eyes, "You hurt me, Harumi. What you did with my dad, that was unforgivable. I've tried to forgive you. I tried to find something inside me that, that tells me that you were just acting out. You didn't deserve what happened, and you were striking back at the world. Like… heh… like Morro. I guess, well, you both make me sad, when I think about you… even though you'd both just call me a coward for that."

"I… I see now you were, you were just like those masks. The ones the Oni made, that you used to bring him back. You, you put it on and you made me care about it. Those things weren't even important by the time I took my dad down. You got me to just, care about it. You made me think you were so sweet, and kind, and you were caring and… and that you had just been so strong to keep going when you had everything taken away from you like that. By… by me."

"I liked you, Harumi," Lloyd reached out and gripped the plaque, "I liked you. That's what hurts the most. I lo-… I wanted to know you better. You were so beautiful, but you were more than that! You made me just feel so, so happy. It was like I finally had someone that understood me. someone I could open up to. And you got me to say so many things I hadn't told anyone else…" His grip tightened, "And knowing, knowing that everything I fell in love with was just this, this mask. I don't even know if I can ever love anyone again now."

"...No, that's not right," Lloyd tried to relax his grip, but it didn't budge, "I could love someone, yeah. But, I'd always be thinking about you, in the back of my mind. Because I failed you. I made you so… so upset. I ruined your life. If I just hadn't opened those stupid Tombs, if I hadn't been such a stupid kid, Pythor wouldn't have done that. Even if we'd just gone to that mountain right away, or, or if we'd tried harder to save everyone, maybe you wouldn't have…" Lloyd's words stuck in his throat again.

"...Am I selfish, Harumi?" Lloyd smiled sadly, "I… I think about the times we spent before you showed me your true colors in that temple. And, and I think about what could have happened if maybe, maybe that was all true. I wanted to learn more about the Harumi that was nice to me. The one that kissed me. But that wasn't true, and I have to tell myself each time you were lying to me. And then I get so angry, and I think about how many people you killed, how much harm you brought to the city, what you did to my father and I… and I…"

Lloyd's grip tightened. The plaque snapped in half. He blinked, looking down at the two halves he'd now ripped up from the nails. He opened his hands, letting them drop to the floor. The sound of them hitting the tiles echoed through the hall like deafening cymbals. He looked down at them, down at the words. He'd split it directly down the center. One half was the Princess, the other the Oni. Two people that took over Ninjago. Two people tried to kill him. Two people, that couldn't be more different.

Suddenly, he let out a small chuckle. Then he reached up and wiped his face. He was crying. Hot tears were staining his cheeks. He hadn't even thought about that. He sniffed as he bent down and picked up the pieces of the plaque. Slowly, he concentrated his power in his hands. The power seeped out and reached out to the plaque. Steadily, the halves began to fuse back together. He'd learned by watching Kai that his power put out enough heat to weld things if he focused. And so he did, letting the crack in the plaque meld. It left an ugly black mark down where the break was, but it was at least together and legible. He gently set it back up, not bothering yet to actually hammer it back on.

"I wonder if there's a place where you and I actually liked each other," Lloyd mused sadly, "What if there was a place where we were able to get along? And we actually… actually cared about each other? Where you weren't… you know. Heh… I guess that's just wishful thinking though. I can't undo time and the last guys who tried showed why you shouldn't."

Lloyd looked up back to the statue, "You know, you made me stronger, Harumi. You got me to realize what I had to do to beat my dad. You got me to see what I had to do. Is that what it's going to take for me to get stronger now? Am I going to have to keep going through painful things, keep regretting everything? Just, thinking about that… it hurts. I don't want to do that. But Ninjago relies on me to protect them. Everyone looks up to me. I can't turn around and stop moving forward now."

Lloyd turned his back to the statue to face the opposite wall. He leaned himself back up against the plaque for a few moments before he groaned, "I don't know what I expected to happen. I thought this would make me feel better but… but I don't. I still see your face when I look at Ninjago City now. I have to smile at every celebration knowing that you had to… had to… had to die for all of them."

"...I'm just rambling now," Lloyd pushed himself upright, taking a step away from her, "I have to move on. I don't know how I can, but I have to. Garmadon said something was coming, and I have to learn more about that. I have to be ready for it. I gotta be able to face danger without thinking about how I hurt you. Otherwise… more people are gonna get hurt like you did. More people are going to fall into darkness. I stopped the ultimate darkness before, but I didn't think about the shadows that don't come from evil. The things that everyone has to deal with. I can't let anyone else go through what you did."

Lloyd took a few more steps away, "I won't forget you, Harumi. But, I can't dwell on you. I can't let you consume me like you wanted Garmadon to. If I did I'd… I'd be saying that you were justified. You weren't. But you weren't entirely wrong. I do have to get stronger, be a better ninja. A better person. You showed me a lot of things I need to learn if I want to grow up. I can't just act like I'm not going to lose people. But I'm going to do everything I can to make sure I don't leave anyone else behind."

He reached the end of the hall. He hesitated as he reached out for the massive double doors. He felt tempted to look behind, back towards her. His hand trembled in the spot. After a few moments, he inhaled and forced his hand to move. He forced himself to grip the handle and push down. Forced himself to open the door and step outside. And as he held the door open, he let out one last sigh.

"I'm going to see him now, Harumi," Lloyd hung his head, "He asked to see me. I can't say no. I'm going to have to learn how to handle him too. How to move past both of you. And… I guess I need to do what my actual dad would have told me to do."

"Goodbye, Harumi," Lloyd let the door handle go, causing the door to swing back shut.

* * *

"Do you need anyone to accompany you?" The Warden asked nervously, "I can send in one of the guards if you need it!"

"No… I think I'll be fine," Lloyd turned towards the opened door to the Maximum Security Wing, "After all, you said it yourself: you spared no expense."

"Heh… right, of course we did!" The Warden suddenly backed up, "Well, I'll check you out when you get done!"

Lloyd turned to try to say something to the warden, but the massive vault door had already slammed shut and the laser bars had moved to block the exit. Slowly, he took a deep breath and walked towards the walkway that slowly extended for him, leading him to the massive cell that lay within the center of the room, and more importantly, the man that stood there.

Garmadon stood with his arms behind his back, looking away from Lloyd. From the angle that Lloyd could see, he could see there was a deep frown on his face. As he approached the glass wall, he took a moment to look down to the sheer drop that would await him if he were to fall. He supposed it was a good thing too… it meant his father wasn't getting out.

"So, you finally came," Garmadon growled out, "Funny, I thought the protectors of this world would be more… prompt."

"Forgive me for not wanting to spend anymore time in here than I have to," Lloyd narrowed his gaze, "You sent for me. Tell me why."

"Hrm… yes, I do believe I did. I had something important to tell you, something you would wish to hear…" Garmadon moved his hand to gently tap his chin, "Now, I wonder what that was. What sort of thing would be so important, I, Garmadon, would send for the Green Ninja? Hmm… it seems I can't quite remember. Your presence makes it hard to think over the stench of justice that you and your friends give off."

"My name is Lloyd," Lloyd stated flatly, "I would call you the Emperor, but you're not exactly ruling an empire right now."

"My reign is simply on pause," Garmadon curtly responded back, "Much like your ability to protect this world."

"I'll protect Ninjago when the time comes, me and my friends," Lloyd shook his head, "What did you want me here for?"

"Hrm… I have seen something, Green Ninja," Garmadon turned, "But, perhaps it would be more fun for you to guess what I have seen. Tell me, are the rumors true? Does the white one see visions of the future?"

"Sometimes…" Lloyd raised an eyebrow, "Why do you ask?"

"A knowledge into the future is a result of many things," Garmadon turned about, "Oh, the easiest way is to peer into the void between the realms. To see the nothingness that extends there, and the terror that comes from it. It is enough to make a lesser man go mad. Though, I doubt you or your friends would be willing to do that."

"You're still not answering my question," Lloyd growled, "Why are you asking about Zane?"

"Impatience is not a virtue one such as yourself should have," Garmadon turned around, a hand on his chest, "Why, I would have thought I raised you better."

"_You_ didn't raise me at all!" Lloyd countered, "You're just a reflection of the man my father was. He was a strong Sensei, a man that fought for his love, and truth, and his own son while being corrupted by the darkest thing Ninjago has in it! You could never be him! The real Garmadon, he'd never let his lust for power take over like this. You're just a murderer and a tyrant. Don't ever associate yourself with my dad!"

Garmadon looked to Lloyd for a few moments, then he scoffed and waved an arm. He moved over to his chair, gently sitting in it and spinning around in it to face Lloyd. He sat up just slightly in it, his bottom arms resting on the rests while his upper arms were clasped in front of his chin. He looked away from Lloyd, letting out a long rumble as the fire behind those red eyes of his seemed to begin to smolder to the surface.

"Perhaps I should speed this along, before I get more heartfelt confessions of your complex feelings on the topic of resurrection," Garmadon sighed, "My visions, they have changed. Something is coming, something else. Something that I have not felt… in so long."

"You said 'Something is coming' when we last met," Lloyd pointed out, "Are you telling me something else is on its way now?"

"Hrmm…. I cannot tell you much," Garmadon shook his head slightly, "I feel many things. Many conflicting things. My dreams, they have been dark. I have touched death, and death has touched me. I have seen what the Departed Realm is like, and how close it is to it. Have you felt it, Lloyd? The endless void, the one that lays just beyond our perception, that stretches beyond all reasoning, all thought, everything?"

"Of course not," Lloyd slowly sat down, bringing his feet together to mirror his father's sitting stance, "So, you're saying something is going to happen?"

Garmadon stood up, making Lloyd's eyebrow twitch as he walked towards the glass, "They are… familiar, to me. I have little memory of who I once was. That at first appeared as a curse to me. A man without memory is no man. Yet now that I have grown… I know what I am. From what I have gleaned of this land, I would be better off not remembering. Yet the sensation, that which it brings to me, it feels as though it is coming closer."

"Who?" Lloyd stood up to mirror him again, "Tell me so I can protect Ninjago!"

"I don't know," Garmadon slowly inhaled, "But I know that when they come… they will bring a destruction to them that will threaten far more than just our world."

"Our world?" Lloyd crossed his arms, "You mean the other realms, right? Someone is coming that will alter the realms, right?"

"If you do not know to what I speak, then you are best off not knowing," Garmadon turned around, "But, I can tell you this: the threat will be something that you will have to face not only alone, but with… beings. Beings that remind me, for some reason, of you."

"Now you're sounding crazy," Lloyd rolled his eyes, "There's only one me. I'm the one and only Green Ninja. There's only one of me in the world!"

"Do you not listen to me, you oaf?!" Garmadon thrust his head around, burning his gaze directly into Lloyd's own. The force and intensity of it was enough to make Lloyd stumble backwards. Had he not felt his heel go over the edge and thrown himself forward, he'd have gone flying off into the darkness.

"Clumsy," Garmadon turned around, "I see beings that you will face, those that you will fight alongside, those that will stand to the side… I do not know what they mean. I was thinking of telling you what I saw… but now that I see you in the flesh once more, I am reminded why I have no inclination towards it."

"You need to tell me," Lloyd stepped up to the glass, "Only one of us can protect Ninjago."

"Yes," Garmadon smirked, "We are linked, son. You were an ingredient in my ritual. Our powers, they are simply two opposites that lay across power. You are Creation, I am Destruction. If you were to submit your powers to me, I could take care of this threat long before it was ever even relevant to you."

"Fat chance," Lloyd retorted, "You and I both know it's the conflict that fuels you. You'd just use the chance to take over Ninjago the second you finished your fight!"

"So, you not only have the clumsiness of a child, but the ability of foresight as well?" Garmadon grinned, his teeth showing one by one, "Funny how the mighty show themselves to their foes."

"I'm not giving you your power back," Lloyd stepped back, "That's all this was about, wasn't it? It's all just some stupid attempt to get me to give you back what you lost. Forget it. I'll figure this all out on my own. Coming here was a waste of time."

Lloyd began to walk away from Garmadon. Holding himself back from stomping the way out. He reached the end of the walkway at the massive vault door. He prepared to call out to tell the Warden to open the door for him, but Garmadon's voice rang out.

"What if I were to tell you that I see death for you in my visions?" Garmadon called out, his tone neutral but his grin still present.

Lloyd hesitated to call for the door. He slowly turned towards Garmadon, taking a few steps forward to read his face. That grin of his, it unnerved him. He had seen his father angry, grieving, and even murderous. Yet for some reason, to see a monster like this, one she brought into this world for the sole purpose of destruction, smiling at him was the sensation that made a chill go down his spine. That face held no sign of lying, no hint of deceit. After having spent so long thinking about her, he was beginning to learn what deceit looked like.

"Are you telling me that I'm going to die?" Lloyd stalked forward back to the cage.

"Oh, so he finally is interested in what I have to say," Garmadon chuckled, "You already are. Slain at the hands of one of your former foes."

"That's impossible, I'm right here!" Lloyd gestured to his body, "Still very much alive. You wouldn't be alive if I wasn't."

"I have seen another, with them," Garmadon closed his eyes, ignoring the ninja, "They are one that I cannot ascertain. They are crying. Crying as they look over you. I would imagine they are likely close to you, in some way."

"But I'm not dead!" Lloyd pointed out again, "I'm. Right. Here!"

Garmadon continued, "Another weeps, but with a smile. A smile stained in ash. They walk forward into battle with that smile on their face, no matter what blows they take. They are the ones you must truly watch out for. They will push forward regardless of the pain you put them through."

"Oh, how funny, one that wishes to imitate me," Garmadon chuckled, still ignoring Lloyd, "And… one that he is training. I would hope that he would be able to move his sword more than just up and down."

"Are you just going to keep talking?" Lloyd groaned, "Ignore me?"

"How quaint… a child. Oh, but one that doesn't feel like a child… oh, I see them doing things that you could only hope of dreaming of," Garmadon sighed, "A pity. I would have liked to train them to their True Potential myself."

"You really are crazy if these are the visions you're seeing," Lloyd leaned back, "You're making so much sense right now."

"Oh hush. I've heard other things. The sound of those awful things the police carry -or rather should- rattling off incessantly. All reflected to me, strangely enough. In something rather… pure, against those horrible things," Garmadon opened one eye, "Are you listening?"

Lloyd rubbed his temples, "Just get it over with. I don't get any of this."

"Have you ever touched the darkness? One that has come far closer than that fool and his son. One that has been touched by the darkness, and has taken the darkness for themselves. Oh, the fight that must have been!" Garmadon chuckled, closing his eyes again, "How I wish I could have seen that fight."

"And?" Lloyd kept rubbing.

"One is weeping beside a temple… no, a statue. Something inside of it, dear to them, locked away where they can never truly get to it," Garmadon turned around, "Oh. They have a tail."

"And one… one is barely in my perception. I see light, and shadow, mingling together. The shining suns of a distance world, a world of barren wasteland, a land important to us. They sit amongst the beasts, at the gates of hell. Just them standing up… all the others I see cower before them."

"Is that it?" Lloyd asked.

"Hrm… yes, I do believe that it is," Garmadon opened his eyes, "Now, that was rather painless for you, wasn't it?"

"If you count 'painless' as horrible!" Lloyd turned around, "Thanks for all this confusing stuff, Garmadon. I'll be going home now."

"Yes, that would be all I have to tell you," Garmadon waved his hand, "You are dismissed."

Lloyd tightened his fists, thinking of something to say but failing to find anything. Instead, he inhaled sharply, then made a rather calm and collected walk back to the entrance to the vault. He was once more about to call for the Warden when Garmadon knocked on the glass with all four arms.

"What?!" Lloyd turned around, his attempted calm broken.

"Tell them to send me more books," Garmadon reached down to pick up a magazine from the previous week, "I wish to learn the history of these lands. Tell the Warden I am rather sated when I am given things to preoccupy my mind with, rather than thoughts of him."

"I'm pretty sure he's listening right now," Lloyd turned back around, "I'll pass on the message."

"Good," Garmadon stepped back, "Now leave."

Lloyd once more ignored Garmadon's declaration for him being allowed to leave, and called out for the Warden. A few moments later, the vault door opened, the laser bars deactivating and allowing him to step out. Garmadon turned so one eye watched Lloyd as he left the massive chamber, and more intently as each layer of security came back into place. Just as the vault was sealed, he looked away.

"So…" The Warden walked from around the corner towards Lloyd, "How'd it go?"

"You weren't listening?" Lloyd groaned, "He's insufferable."

"He is, but he's dangerous!" The Warden shook his head, "This prison is under my command, and he's the biggest threat we have right now to us. He says crazy stuff like that… but his visions always come true!"

"He's had other visions?" Lloyd asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Yep!" The Warden grinned, "The other day, he predicted exactly who would be watching him on the camera! And the day before that! And before that!"

"Did he tell you this?" Lloyd sighed, "If you talked to him on the intercom, he likely just memorized the pattern the voices were in. He's sneaky like that."

"I still say it was visions! ...But, you might have a point. I'll make sure to let the boys know not to talk to him!" The Warden paused, "Do you perhaps need an escort out?"

"No need," Lloyd raised his hand, "Nya's picking me up in the Driller. We need to do some prep before we get started helping move the rest of those artifacts to Borg Tower."

"Good luck with that!" The Warden saluted Lloyd.

"I'm sure it'll go fine," Lloyd sighed with a smile, "After all, it's just moving boxes. I'll make sure we keep it uneventful."

* * *

And thus, with a rather small chapter, we begin **Universal Deviations! **

Yes, this chapter is somewhat shameless foreshadowing. I have a lot of things planned and this chapter is sort of my way of forcing myself to make sure I'm going through with it. I had a lot of fun writing the dialogue between these two.

Each chapter will focus on one of the main leads we have so far in Ninjaverse. Since we have a total of 4 of them right now, we'll have 4 chapters during the hiatus. Each one is set before the actual beginning of Ninjaverse. Time flows chronologically in each of their worlds, so all chapters will take place before Lloyd drops into their life.

Thank you for reading, and Ninja-Go!


	2. (Lu)Lloyd - Experience

"I-I really think I'm gonna be sick…" Lulloyd placed his hands over his stomach.

"Pfft, what, did the Ka-are really make you that sick?" Garmadon laughed, "Son, if a little jostling is enough to make you sick then we need to add to your training regimine!"

The portal behind the two figures closed up, leaving Lulloyd and Garmadon in their new location. Lulloyd has traded his ninja gi for his favorite green hoodie and black pants, his hood currently drawn up over his head. Garmadon had dressed himself in his 'fancy' warlord robes, which Lulloyd had come to learn was just his normal robes but with an even pointier helmet. The trip seemed to have no effect on Garmadon, while Lulloyd wished he had his sword with him to steady himself.

In front of them was a land of pinks and glitter. The last that Lulloyd had ever heard, it was nothing more than an oddly PG apocalyptic ruin, but now it appeared as though the entire world had been given a massive shot of color and… things that he couldn't fully place. He was forced to duck as a spinning star carrying what he could only call a 'sparkle baby' flew past him, both laughing in unison as they did.

"Ugh…" Garmadon slowly swallowed and beat his chest with a hand, "I know J said that it was different now but… wow, this is just too much color. I'm not saying make it all dark and gritty but come on, at least use colors that don't blind you when the sun shines on it!"

"We uh, should go find this 'J,' right, dad?" Lulloyd asked curiously. Garmadon's slightly unnerved smile turned into a deep grin.

"Oh yes, don't worry, he'll see us right away," Garmadon looked around, the two having landed in what appeared to be woods just outside of the city, "In fact, here, help me get some stuff for a ride!" Garmadon gestured to the woods, and Lulloyd followed suit.

Garmadon and Lulloyd began to rapidly dart around the surrounding area, grabbing at pieces and throwing them into a massive pile where they once stood. Lulloyd mirrored grabbing what Garmadon did, allowing the two to quickly assemble a good pile. Pieces gathered, Garmadon began with legs, using large leaf pieces and clipping them on so they would rotate forward and back like legs. Sticking plates between two leaves gave him a protrusion to build feet off of. Lulloyd worked on creating the main body, using the ground tiles to create fins and a large tail. When Garmadon and Lullody stopped, a glistening pink, purple and blue shark with large chicken legs, covered in glitter, splashed with color and a completely open head was in front of them.

"Hmm… does the mouth open, son?" Garmadon turned, sighing as Lulloyd rubbed hie neck, "Then it'll have to do. You've got a llllooooooonnngggggg way to go before you're building up there with the warlords!"

Garmadon leapt from the ground, grabbing the side of a fin to flip himself into the cockpit. Lulloyd took the seat behind him. Garmadon looked to the controls and gave a nod of approval, hoisting the control sticks to make the thing walk forward. With its legs only able to rotate at 'hip' and 'ankle,' the ride wasn't incredibly smooth, but after a few trial steps they were up and running straight into the city.

Lulloyd was silent, opting instead to just take in the… sights. While Ninjago City's architecture could be strange going from layer to layer, it was nothing compared to the sights he saw. Mechs walking around with massive swords made of strange fuzzy piping, bubble-like spaceships with gatling guns firing out ice cream, what looked to be massive sentient fruit making their way around as well, it was as if he was in some sort of happy nightmare of colors. Several citizens in various states of tattoos depicting spikes and skulls were also wearing sparkly robes and neon face paint. Most people would wave to them as their shark stepped by. Lulloyd realized quickly them walking around in a glittery shark mech was so weird, it was normal.

"He said to meet him… right around here…" Garmadon stopped in front of what Lulloyd recognized as the Statue of Liberty. The massive thing was sunk halfway into the ground, her torch at the top traded out for fireworks and the dull green color changed to various shades of pink. At the base of the statue was a shop that had lines all the way around the statue and then some, with people walking out with coffee, slushies and various manners of drinks. Just catching the price board through the doors made Lulloyd shudder.

"YO! G!"

Garmadon looked up to hear three rapid _Pew, Pew, Pew!_'s. Garmadon did a backflip, yanking a brick up from the fin of the shark to deflect the oncoming fire. Three blue long bolts struck the shield, turned to wedges, and then arced off into the distance. While Lulloyd raised his arms to prepare for another attack, Garmadon's smile was wide enough to nearly break the boundaries of his face.

"J!" Garmadon laughed as a figure floated down from a massive jetpack laced with balloons, "How long has it been?!"

The aforementioned 'J' slowly drifted down the roof of the coffee shop, the entire thing deflating as he landed. The figure was dressed in a striking dark purple suit, the sleeves gone to show gloves decked out with card suits. His orange undershirt and tie were tucked under it. Most startling of all, however, was his massively slicked back hair, the green locks jutting out from his head like some sort of massive plant.

"Oh I dunno, just a few YEARS!" Joker laughed and waved the shark over, catching sight of who was also in the cockpit, "Waaaaaaaait, is this him? You're Lulloyd, right, son of big G?!"

"Y-You told him my name was Lulloyd?" Lulloyd groaned. Garmadon just rolled his eyes and let his mech step over the line of people to place them at the roof.

"Howdy!" Joker extended his hand, "I'm sure old G here has told you about me before, but I'm Joker! Greatest enemy of Batman, scourge of Gotham City, the clown prince of downtown, I'm sure you've heard of me."

"...You…" Lulloyd slowly reached out to shake Joker's hand, the sheer force of the handshake nearly yanking Lulloyd clean out of the cockpit, "I… I didn't know you were _the_ Joker. Dad, always just called you J…"

"Oh, it's just a thing we do!" Garmadon clarified, "Easy way to distinguish each other. Plus, the only other nickname that works is reserved exclusively for your mother."

"How is Coco, by the way?" Joker asked as he stepped down into the mech, "Last I heard you two were back together!"

"Yep, all thanks to Lulloyd here," Garmadon turned back to look at his son, "See this kid here? Managed to take down Meowthra, defeat me AND get me and Coco back together! Oh I tell you Joker, the fights that we've gotten into since then…"

"You defeated G?" Joker delivered a hard smack to Lulloyd's back, "Congrats, Lulloyd! You should be so proud of yourself! Taking down one of the great villains of all over there!"

"Oh I'm not the best, not yet anyways!" Garmadon sighed, turning the mech into the streets, "Started teaching Lulloyd and his team now, but they haven't found their villain yet. Trust me, it isn't for lack of trying! It's almost like Ninjago just doesn't have enough villains!"

"I feel that!" Joker leaned back with his arms crossed, "Ever since we merged with the Systar System, there have been more heroes than we know what to deal with! It's almost like there isn't enough of us to go around anymore! Thankfully Batman said Gotham City is his turf, said he'd only ever reluctantly crossover with another hero to take any of us down."

"That's pretty heroic of him, especially with that new sidekick of his," Garmadon looked out into the streets, "By the way, where are we going?"

"Emmet's place! He said he's throwing out eight-and-a-little-more anniversary," Joker smirked, "You'll get to meet Batman's wife!"

"BATMAN HAS A WIFE NOW?!" Garmadon yanked up on his controls,the shark's tail causing a hovering car to go flying off into a swimming pool of what Lulloyd could only guess was chocolate ice cream.

"You haven't heard?!" Joker leaned forward over Lulloyd's head, "It's like you guys aren't even apart of this place! He married Queen Watevra Wa'nabi, the leader of the Systar System!" Joker grimaced, "Not that, I was told until they're already hitched it..."

"J, I'm so sorry, that's just low of Batman!" Garmadon hissed, "Come on, you gotta know if you have a new dynamic to your rivalry. Why, that's like if Wu went and got a surprise ninja without telling us!"

Across the way, a whisper of _surprise…_ echoed out.

"Well I'm over it now, even though I was really stern with him!" Joker frowned, "I made sure to turn the acid for the vat up extra high when I kidnapped Robin!"

"How is that kid, anyways?" Garmadon leaned back, "Should I worry about him trying to take me down on sight?"

"Oh he's an absolute gem, nicest kid you'll ever meet!" Joker quickly beamed, "I've never met anyone that hasn't come to love him after just a few minutes!"

"Sounds like the perfect sidekick," Garmadon shivered, "Well let's get to this place so we can meet all of them."

"Wait, are we going to hang out with… heroes?" Lulloyd turned to Joker, "Aren't you like, a villain?"

"Only the best one Batman's ever met!" Joker grinned evilly, "Outside Gotham though, we only have to fight if we get the urge to. This place is a truce zone. Nothing wrong with a bit of fun every now again, amirite? Wouldn't wanna cause another end of the world by giving Batman the old one-two, right?"

"...I uh, don't think I'd have ever hung out with my dad before Meowthra but, okay?" Lulloyd stated awkwardly. Garmadon gave him a nod, signalling he'd gotten his answer.

Lulloyd did what he did best when things got overwhelming: retreated into silence and waited for the perfect chance to speak. Between his dad and Joker, he found none of that. Instead, he let Garmadon drive them out of the city and down a massive road that went out into another stretch of the forest around the city. The density of figures and builds seemed to decrease as they made their way out into the distance. Once they exited the forest, Lulloyd saw a sight that was both comforting and strange at the same time.

An innocent little yellow house with large sloped blue roofs, surrounded by a white picket fence on all sides, stood on a patch of pure grass in the midst of a wide open clearing. Around the home, several ships were already parked, most notably the Scuttler and a massive sand blue jacked up truck. Garmadon grimaced and looked to his own ride, making sure to park his mech near the treeline and hopping out along with the others.

"...Should've at least brought a sub…" Garmadon muttered, waving for the two to join him.

"Don't worry, kiddo!" Joker patted Lulloyd's shoulder, "Just go in and have some fun! I see you're the quiet hero type. Don't worry, silent heroes are just as great at the loud ones!"

Before Lulloyd could correct him on that, Joker had leapt down beside Garmadon. Lulloyd slowly rubbed his forehead, pushing his hoodie down and following after his dad. A sense of worry filled him as the two approached the door, Garmadon mumbling as he was forced to duck down to make it frame.

"Heeeyy you guys made it!" A chipper sounded voice rung out as Lulloyd entered, "Did the Ka-are arrive on time! Oh man, did you guys have any trouble getting here?"

"Nah, totally didn't, Emmet!" Garmadon smirked, "Lulloyd, meet Emmet, savior of basically everyone here. Twice, kinda. More like one and a half."

Lulloyd blinked as he came face to face with Emmet. The construction worker was in a normal set of slightly faded and scratched construction vest and pants. In one hand he has a plate filled with soda, goblets and teacups. Behind him, the living room was packed with people all chatting with one another.

"Uh, hi!" Lulloyd quickly reached forward to shake Emmet's free hand, "I'm Lulloyd, uh, son of Garmadon and, the green ninja."

"Well it's awesome to meet you!" Emmet reached out to shake the hand, "Lucy was worried that you guys not make it oh we're going down!"

Emmet's foot tripped over the welcoming mat into his home, sending his tray forward. Without even thinking, Lulloyd did a backflip and kicked off the door, sending him soaring overhead. He collected all the drinks and landed behind Emmet, holding the tray up overhead. When he looked up, he found his eyes were looking at a pair of black pants with stencil designs across them.

"Woah, nice moves!" Lucy reached down to take the tray, letting Lulloyd slide up, "They really weren't kidding when they said you were a ninja. Wish I'd gotten the training you did."

"...Y-Yeah… totally am…" Lulloyd felt his senses going into overload being so close to Lucy. After a moment, Lucy took a step back.

"Well, come on in and say hi! Batman and Robin are out getting some snacks. Think you and Garmadon can stay out of trouble until then?" Lucy raised an eyebrow.

"Ppssshhh, we're at a formal event! There is absolutely no way that I will not not never not nope ever not do something to ruin it!" Joker beamed, "Besides, Emmet was nice enough to invite us."

"Don't worry about us, I'm currently training Lulloyd and his team, so I guess I'm technically on the 'good' side…" Garmadon paused, "Lulloyd, that'd make me, what? Chaotic even or something?"

"D-Dad, don't, we don't need to, tell them about that…" Lulloyd rubbed his hands together, "...We haven't even finished your character…"

"OOooh new face! New face! I wanna say hi first! Can I, Emmet, can I?!"

"Nope, sorry Unikitty!" Emmet smiled, "Lucy and I always did, but you can be third!"

Lulloyd turned to see what he could only describe as the infusion of a pink rainbow, unicorn and cat all put together leaping towards him. When she landed, her body bent forward into slopes to let her raise her head to be right at Lulloyd's eyes level.

"Third place is still a winner! Hello!" Unikitty beamed, "I'm Unikitty! I used to be Angry Kitty, but now I'm back to being good old Unikitty, bringer of rainbows and HAPPINESS!" To punctuate her points, sparkles of wands and stars popped over her head.

"...I-I'm Lulloyd," Lulloyd was quickly feeling overwhelmed, "Uh, I'm the green ninja, uh, I'm Garmadon's son, uh, and, I uh, yeah…"

"We're so happy to have you here!" Unikitty giggled, "New faces are always great to have! A party isn't a party if you don't have at least one new face! Otherwise it's just a get-together! Not that there's anything wrong with either, because both can be FUN!"

"Aye!" Lulloyd watched an amalgamation of a pirate ship, several instruments, and a metal beard rise from the couch, "A good captain can't build a crew without new members! Tis good to have you with us, boy!"

"Well who is this little cutie pootie right here?" A far deeper female voice made Lulloyd start to look for it, only to watch something rapidly pool in front of him. Orange, red and purple bricks rapidly began to melt together until a brick-built dragon stood in front of him, the rough and blocky form sitting down on the ground. Much to Lulloyd's shock, the eyes actually blinked and the mouth began to move.

"You like dragons, right?" The mass asked, "I'm still learning what form everyone is most comfortable around."

"...uh," Lulloyd was stunned beyond words. After a few moments, Garmadon's hands came down on his shoulders.

"You're staring, son," Garmadon hissed to him, then raised his voice, "You must be Queen Watevra Wa'nabi, a pleasure to make your possible future enemy."

"Mhm-hmm, nice to meet you to, Garmadon," Watevra smirked, "The apple fell a bit far from the tree, didn't it?"

"Oh, he'll grow to look a lot more like me in his future redesign," Garmadon waved his hand flipilantly, "We would've been at the wedding ceremony but the Ka-are wasn't working! I tell you, it's almost like you guys are trying to avoid us!"

"I know, right?!" Emmet popped up behind Watevra, "I didn't even know Ninjago City was a place until Batman mentioned it in a joke! And then I was all 'wait, you're telling me there is a city of super awesome people that we never even met and clearly all totally AWESOME?!' And then Batman was like 'Oh, yeah, thought you know.' So I sent the invite out and you guys are actually here!"

"You… guys never heard of us before?" Lulloyd turned his attention to Emmet.

"Nope, nuh-uh, nada!" Emmet shook his head, "But hey, now you're here and we get to meet you! We tried to send more invitations but we could only get two out! Batman said you two were the best choices."

"Cause, you know, I could totally only contact two guys with my super rad transmitter beam. Those charges are like, super expensive, and all. Stop asking questions."

The room turned to see Batman and Robin carrying what looked to be at least ten pizza boxes and three crates of soda, along with several legs of chicken, croissants and bananas. Robin was struggling with the crates, and when he saw the team, he happily cried out.

"Oh, hey guys! We… got… what you asked for!" Robin turned, "Padre, can… can I set these down?"

"Nah, not yet, this is gonna do so much work for your glutes," Batman smirked, "I got the kid working out, I'm gonna make him a perfect little me. As in, totally shredded. I mean…."

Batman trailed off. Across the room, Garmadon and him made eye contact. Lightning pieces sparked in the air. Batman threw the pizza boxes into the air, making them land perfectly on the couch. Robin huffed and simply smiled again as he forced himself to continue holding onto the crates. Batman surged across the room, Garmadon dropping to all fours and skittering up until the two leapt and pressed their chests together. Garmadon was grinning, while Batman was snarling. The room tensed up as the two spoke.

"So, you're the infamous Batman!" Garmadon smirked, "My, I never realized one of the realm's heroes was so… scrawny."

"Hey, Joker mentioned you before. I see you really are ripping off my image. Black is my thing, and I don't even seen a single line of dark gray on you," Batman shot back, "Being taller doesn't mean anything. I bet you don't even have a single ab!"

"Hah! Wrong again, hero!" Garmadon whispered, "I have fourteen."

"F-Four...Fourteen?!" Batman sputtered, taking a step back and drawing two batarangs, "...Nah, nobody can have that many abs! I can't, and I have the most abs out of everyone here! You're totally lying to me!"

"How about I take off this armor and we see who really does?" Garmadon grinned, "Though, when I take this armor off, it's for a duel, and most of my duels are to the death."

"Trust me, I've saved the world like, so many times I don't even think you can count that high. Only Batman can count that high. And even if you could, you didn't even conquer the world more than once. So, like, I think that means I'm still totally better than you!" Batman's snarl turned into a wild grin of his own.

"BATMAN!"

Both Watevera and Joker both shouted out at once, the two sharing a look of confusion before both frowning and crossing their arms. Batman perked and stood up straight, looking to the two of them with a simple, 'Wwwwhhhaaaattttttttt?'

"Batman, we talked about this!" Watevera waved a brick built hand around, "You do NOT go making any new villains with you first coming to ME! You know how many you still gotta put in Arkham? So many I don't even think _you_ can count that high!"

"Bats, buddy, I really appreciate you're willing to branch out here," Joker growled, "But I for one find it a little insulting that you're willing to make even more changes in our relationship without telling me! G is my friend but I wasn't ready to ally with him yet!"

"But come oooooonnnnnnnnn!" Batman groaned, "He's, like, totally provoking me! Right, Robin?"

Robin huffed hard and finally dropped the crates he was holding, "Onethousandfourhundredten! Whew! I held them for as long as I could, Padre! Uhm, what was it, you wanted?"

"Oh nu-uh, you ain't bringing our son into this!" Watevera surged forward, "Don't make me come give you a talkin' to right here in front of all your friends! If my eyes were correct you were the one that ran up to him and asked him to fight!"

"But… but!" Batman was cut off.

"Batman, it's a party," Wyldstyle walked up, extending a slushie out to him, "Come on, why don't we just all cool down from this and we all do something fun!"

"Aye! This room be saltier than a prisoner in the brig!" Metalbeard stood up, "Me thinks this be a good time to have one of Emmet's famous 'party activities!' What say you, quartermaster?"

"Uh I have no quarters but I am a Master Builder!" Emmet beamed, "I was gonna wait until all the midparty cookies were done but let's do it anyways! BUILDING CONTEST!"

"Build… contest…?" Throughout all of the altercations, Lulloyd had stood there, unable to process anything but what was happening around him. When Emmet shouted, the room erupted in one loud cheer of 'YAY!'

"Ooohh you guys have NO idea what you're getting into!" Garmadon smirked, "Come on, what's the contest, I wanna know so I can build a perfect shark themed item for it!" He paused, "Well. Dragon shark, if Lulloyd gets involved."

"Sharks? Hah! Try completely diesel and steampunk over here baby!" Lucy fired back.

"A rousing vessel to carry us upon the seas to victory!" Metalbeard added.

"Something chaotic and evil!" Joker laughed.

"Hey, I think that's what was looking for earlier!" Garmadon declared triumphantly.

"Alright, everyone!" Emmet leapt up onto his chair, "Then it's settled! Team build contest, theme is animals!"

"HAH!" Garmadon and Joker leapt into the air to high five one another.

"Hear that, Batty?" Watevera's arm extended and wrapped around Batman to draw him in, "We get to show off our stuff!"

"Oohhh, oohhh build contest!" Robin looked around, "Can I be with the pirate? I've always wanted to do something pirate-y! I think it was national talk like a pirate day awhile ago!"

"And I'm with my Special," Lucy backed up sweetly to Emmet, "And we will OWN all of you!"

"Is Benny coming?" Emmet asked curiously.

"Nah, said he wanted to see how many spaceships he could make pop off of an even bigger spaceship, it's all spaceships with that guy," Lucy waved her hand, "Plus if he was here we'd have an odd number."

"He's kinda a one note character," Batman added, "Probably super hard to write for."

"I guess that leaves you with ME!" Unikitty leapt up in the air, spinning around Lulloyd, "Oh this is going to be so fun1 We can make a rainbow bird, or a rainbow fish, oh maybe a sparkly rainbow unicorn!"

"...Uh… what about a dragon..?" Lulloyd stammered around.

"A rainbow dragon…?" Unikiity paused. Lulloyd felt his chest slightly tighten.

"I-I was just saying something, you know! Something dumb!" Lulloyd smiled dumbly, "Look, forget I even said anything, let's uh, let's go with-"

"A rainbow dragon is the PERFECT idea!" Unikitty squeed, "Oh my gosh just think about it! We're in a rainbow forest, oh we can make the most huge awesome dragon! Come on, we gotta get going before we fall behind!"

"Fall… behind?" Lulloyd asked quizzically, only to see the room was deserted. Unikitty's tail turned sideway and wrapped around his arm to quickly drag him along in a high speed gallop that nearly put the mechdargon to shame.

The two exited Emmet's back door to see that the groups were already gone in the forest. Off in the distance, Lulloyd saws treetops go down below the treeline. Unikitty didn't give him much time to think, instead quickly ferrying him through the woods until the two came into an area of thick navy blue and purple undergrowth. There was a tiny clearing, at which point Unikitty stopped dragging him along and turned to him.

"I need every single rainbow colored brick here! I mean any color, if it's on the rainbow I want it now!" She beamed, "I'll go grab lots of non-rainbow colors!"

"Uhm, aren't, we gonna like, coordinate what parts we're building..?" Lulloyd asked.

"Well we can't build without bricks, silly!" Unikitty giggled, "Come on, we got lots and lots and lots of bricks to find! We're gonna make the best dragon EVER!"

"Uh… yeah, sure, totally," Lulloyd wasn't sure what he was doing, but he at least knew how to complete the task at hand. The forest was strangely colored, making the blues and orange stand out vividly against the more muted purples. As he looked around, he found even more colors, a situation which made him wonder how this place and Ninjago City were even connected, given that they were apparently connected.

Grabbing several colors of the rainbow was relatively simple: blue, indigo and orange were simple, and after a little digging he could even find red pieces in the undergrowth. At the same time, finding yellows, greens and violet was a rather difficult problem. Unikitty had specifically said rainbow, and the only yellow he'd seen around was on Emmet's house. He wasn't about to go taking from that, meaning he was trying to scavenge for them. It reminded him of trying to find sand green for his dragon… that color seemed hard to find for some reason until a few years ago.

Seeing what looked to be a big patch of yellow flowers, Lulloyd was quick to flip his way over from tree to tree until he landed in them. As he reached out to pluck away a large stem, however, he was met with a sight of orange. It took him a few moments to realize he was looking at Emmet's back, who turned to him and leapt up with a bit of surprise.

"Oh! Excccccuse me, just taking some stuff here for our super secret do not steal creation!" Emmet picked up a large section of tree trunk, "We are so gonna make this an awesome competition!"

"Uh, yeah, sure thing," Lulloyd blinked, "Uh… we're gonna, win?"

"That sounds like the spirit!" Emmet turned, "Oh, Lucy is calling, gotta run!" Emmet quickly went flying.

Lulloyd sighed, the awkwardness of the encounter washing over him. He quickly went about gathering up the bricks he needed, stacking them rapidly up on a large plate until he had assembled a tower of a hodgepodge of random bricks of yellows and blues. He quickly began to make his way back through the woods, leaping and flipping his way over the bits of forest and back towards where Unikitty was awaiting.

"Heads up up up up up!"

Throwing his stack into the air, Lulloyd tried to skid to a stop. A large tree fell over in front of him, and he thrust his hand out to push himself away just as it flew in front of him. He landed with legs spread and one hand on the ground. He blinked at the fallen tree before he stood up to see his stack falling down. He grabbed ahold of it at he last minute, panting as he looked toward where the tree had fallen from.

"Apologies of the highest order!" Metalbeard shouted out from the tree stump, a mixture of sword and guitar in hand, "Landfall be not me strongest element!"

"Yeah, sorry!" Robin shouted, "If it makes you feel any better, you looked totally cool flipping around like that!"

Lulloyd wanted to speak, but he had no idea what to say in response. So, instead, he just gave them a nod and leapt up over the tree to make his way back to Unikitty. The forest thankfully seemed to let him get back to the clearing without issue, leading him to finally plant his bricks down in front of him as he looked to see where Unikitty had brought. Upon seeing it, suddenly his stack of bricks felt underwhelming.

In front of him, Unikitty had assembled a gigantic expanse of all the colors of the rainbow. Seven towers of varying heights, built with elements connected to give the entire area a look of instability, rose up to the treetops. Weaving in and out of them with large bounds was Unikitty herself, happily humming a tune as he threw elements onto each of the towers. Upon seeing Lulloyd, she sparked and rapidly leapt over to him, looking to his bricks with a grin. He guessed her getting 'non-rainbow' pieces fell through.

"Perfect! We needed a lot more yellows, now we only need a little more yellows!" Her body extended out, her back leg rotating up to kick the bricks into the air to land on top of the yellow stack, "Now we just need the WOW factor for our dragon!"

"The, uh, wow factor?" Lulloyd asked.

"You know, the WOW factor!" Unikitty chuckled, "Something that'll make our build look sparkly and glittery and amazing! Anyone can build a dragon, but we gotta make it stand out!"

"Uh… well I normally have a mechdragon, that thing kinda, does some interesting stuff…" Lulloyd smiled slightly, "Like, uh, pretty much all of it can shoot out as missiles, it has like three extra heads for it too, all the spines can pop off and act as flares, oh! And like, the tail itself can act as a heat seeking missile!"

Unikitty blinked at him. Her expression didn't change, but she didn't respond to him. Lulloyd felt the awkwardness only wash over him harder, and he went to try to speak again.

"So… what you're saying is that we can make everything into fireworks?" Unikitty asked.

"...Yes," Lulloyd replied, "Yeah, that was exactly what I was saying."

"That… is going to be so totally fun and flashy and sparkly and it'll be so good!" Unikitty beamed, "Come on, we gotta work on making that then! Oh! When we make the rainbow dragon we gotta make sure that we make it so cool! We gotta give it really big rainbow WINGS!"

"Wait, what?" Lulloyd tried to keep up, but Unikitty was already leaping into the towers and working on the dragon's base.

Lulloyd was quick to make sure he wasn't going to fall behind. While she worked on the body, he was quick on the head. At first, he found himself creating a replica of the mechdragon, and upon realizing it, he shifted to making a far sleeker and thinner head with large horns. Thankfully, some of the foliage had been propped up with what he'd seen used as decorative horns before, and a few brcks with horizontal studs was enough to give the dragon four of them.

Unikitty, meanwhile, was working on the body. At first, she tried to make the body a rainbow, but she ran out of curves. Instead, she made it incredibly long with tiny curves with the rainbow patterns interlaid throughout it in bands. For wings, she looked around and used the flowers and massive leaves and turned the front legs into massive wings by overlapping the large leaves. Lulloyd wondered if that technically made this a dragon, but it wasn't like anyone would care.

Not to be outdone, once Lulloyd had the sleek head finished, he thrust it onto the body and went to work on the tail. He wanted to be unique, and so instead of one tail, he created several long and thin tails that were each different colors of the rainbow (he had to use gray connectors but he hid those as best he could). At the end, he attached a large flower to match them.

Unikitty was fast to pick up on what he was doing. Soon enough, she had attached makeshift rockets to the bottom of each of the tails, giving the dragon propulsion into the sky. Lulloyd created fireworks by sticking a cone onto a cylinder and showing a bar through it, and repeated this to line the back of the dragon like scales. To hide the larger ones on the dragon's legs, they attached them behind the wings on the front and disguised them as smaller wings on the legs. Once they were done, Unikitty created a saddle that looked like a cloud with a slot in front of Lulloyd and two dents behind him for her feet.

"Now we just need to name it!" Unikitty called from atop the dragon.

"Uh, naming was never really something I'm good at," Lulloyd called back as he ran forward, spinning his body up from the wings and landing firmly in the saddle with one hand in the air.

"Hmm… what about… the Sparkle Dragon! Nonono, Cumulonimbeast! Or or or, what about the Rainbow Wyvern?!"

"Uh… what about the Dragonbow?" Lulloyd suggested.

"The Dragon… bow… the Dragon… Rainbow, the Dragonbow!" Unikitty sparked, "It's perfect, it's a name that's going to bring the world excitement and happiness!"

"Yeah, I bet it is," Lulloyd paused, "So, uh, are done with it, or uh…?"

"One last thing~!" Unikitty sung, leaping down and grabbing tiles. Her back leg extended and kicked them so on the side of the dragon she spelled out 'L + U.' When she finished, she leapt back on and nodded, "There we are, now everyone will know it was the two of us that brought this competition joy!"

"You really seem to, you know, bring people joy," Lulloyd spoke as he slid into his seat, finding the 'steering' was a rainbow assortment of buttons and a flower for the steering wheel, "It's uh, nice, you know?"

"Awh, you're so sweet! Sweet like candy!" Unikitty beamed, "Making people smile is a reward itself though, so I don't need candy, thank you!" She sat down to admire the creation, "You can lighten up a little bit too, you know."

"Uh, what what?" Lulloyd blinked, "I never said I was tense, I'm perfectly fine."

"It's not that hard to read, you know," Unikitty rolled her eyes, "You're with friends! Nobody's judging you. I mean, your dad is a little out there but you don't have to think about that. Just enjoy the moment!"

"It's just a lot to take in all at once," Lulloyd smiled gently, "But, thanks, Unikitty. It helps to hear that."

"Great!" Unikitty declared, "Now we gotta wait until everyone else has shown off their builds before we go in there and CRUSH them!" Unikitty's eyes lit up with comical pink flames, "Let's walk right up to the house and hide behind it!"

Lulloyd wanted to say that it was impossible for them to do that, but then again his father had hidden his shark behind buildings in ways that he would never have thought possible. Thus, he began to make the dragon move. The beast wormed its way through the trees, using its curved body to slide between them and avoid breaking anything. It moved almost like a snake, which he guessed was due to the rainbow nature of it.

"Stealtttthhhhhhhhh…" Unikitty whispered as the dragon approached the house. He worked their way so they were opposite the direction they'd entered the wood and then walked out into the sunlight. Unikitty began to hum a spy song as they went. Soon, the dragon was directly behind the house, its body sticking out awkwardly behind it. It would only be non visible from a straight on angle.

"I, uh, don't know if this will work, Unikitty…" Lulloyd whispered.

"Shh, yes it will!" Unikitty sparked, leaping up into the air over the roof, "The others are coming through!"

With a massive combined evil laugh, several trees fell as something stepped out of it. What looked like massive monkey arms and legs were connected to the base of a shark that was painted in several hues of green and purple. A massive bowtie on the shark's front was spinning about and spurting flames as it did. On the top of the shark's head was a platform made to look like Joker's hair of green bricks where Garmadon and Joker stood.

"You think the monkey arms were too much?" Joker asked as Garmadon laughed.

"Nah, I think it was the perfect touch," Garmadon broke laughter to respond, "'Sides, we totally nailed this one!"

"Don't be counting ye ship as best in the seas without a test of her mettle!" Metalbeard shouted, "We be the ones taking home this here treasure!"

More trees fell down as several orange tentacles lashed out to strike into the ground. What looked to be a massive kraken tore its way beside the shark on monkey legs. At a massive wheel in the forehead of the beast was Metalbeard, laughing and playing his intro music on his piano leg. Robin was jumping and dancing to the music, one of the tentacles bent forward for him to stand on. The kraken stopped in front of the house, slowly rotating around to face the shark.

"We be the greatest fear upon the high seas!" Robin shouted out, "Even if that shark is really creepy and it's scaring me really badly!"

"HAH! You think you're the terror that lurks in the night?!" Joker shouted, "WRONG, THAT'S BATMAN!"

"The last time I fought a kraken I was nearly dragged down to my death, let's see if you two can do the same!" Garmadon reached forward, grabbing four sets of sticks that rose from the platform he and Joker stood on, "I BET THAT BEARD ISN'T EVEN METAL!"

"ACK!" Metalbeard raised his hand and rubbed his beard, "ROBIN! He be insultin' the beard of pirates everywhere!"

"That isn't good, already weird pirate guy, I got this!" Robin's tentacle moved him down so he could pull a large lever, causing massive speakers to rise up the kraken as well. Metalbeard reached down to plug a cable into his piano leg and let out a war cry through his trumpet arm.

"AVAST YE!" Metalbeard cried. The tentacles moved up and formed around him, revealing the ends were filled with cannons. The actual kraken was on wheels it seemed. Robin shrieked and grabbed his own with both arms and legs as they fired off towards the JokGarmaMonkShark.

The fire of what appeared to be stars that laughed as they collided with the JokGarmaMonkShark smashed directly into the broadside of the amalgamation. When the smoke cleared, Garmadon was simply grinning with a mad grin, while Joker behind him drew two massive tommy guns with flags sticking out reading 'BANG!'

"You can never beat me, MetalDUMB! Hah, nailed it!" Garmadon laughed, thrusting the bottom sticks forward. The 'fins' of the JokGarmaMonkShark suddenly extended out to reveal they were actual flamethrowers and had joy buzzers on catapults. The shark let out a cackling laugh as it fired them off into the kraken.

"ROBIN! IT BE STARBOARD INBOUND!" Metalbeard thrust his wheel to the right.

"Star what?" Robin asked, "Oh, do you mean like how on ships it's like OH MY GGEESOOOSSHHH!"

The kraken rapidly began to circle to the right, causing it to lean down. Robin was left clinging to the end of the tentacle as they began to circle one another. The JokGarmaMonkShark suddenly ejected its feet and legs and instead sprouted massive wheels that it used to begin circling the kraken as well.

The two ships traded fire. Robin managed to scramble his way using his dance fighting back down to Metalbeard, who barked to him to reload the cannons. As Robin went about it, Joker leapt up into a turret made to look like his tommy guns, complete with the massive flags. The flags, however, fired off towards the kraken, followed by Joker's loud '_Pew! Pew! Pew!_'

The flags stuck into the kraken's side, causing Metalbeard to wail as he nearly lost his grip on the wheel. Robin master built a small ledge for Metalbeard to stand on, who thanked him by using his free hand to play the fighting music even louder. The speakers blared out as the tentacles all came together and pointed at one another. The stars fired off with loud cries of 'hello!' until they collided, forming one massive star that shot out towards the JokGarmaMonkShark.

Joker had only enough time to shriek and leap out of his turret before it was cleaved clean off his build. He landed hard, clinging to one of the flamethrowers. Garmadon shouted and tried to turn the JoGarmaShark back up to help him, but he had to focus. He instead rapidly pulled the shark into an even tighter radius, drawing them closer in.

"Robin!" Metalbeard shouted, "The wheel be yours! Methinks a clown has his final score to be played!"

"Uhm… okay!" Robin yelled out, leaping forward and grabbing the wheel. He leapt straight up into the air a massive joy buzzer nearly cleaned him straight off the ship. He nervously gulped as Metalbeard turned to the massive speakers and threw them down, connecting them to the ship to build a bridge.

"We're about to be boarded!" Garmadon shouted, "Jokes, you got this?!"

Joker responded by slowly pulling himself up back to the deck, "W-Whew, Batman was not lying when he said it's all in the abs!" He patted his core and reached down to draw two more guns from behind him, "Oh, you know that I'll be sure to put a massive smile on that face of his…"

"He's already on the ship," Garmadon stated nonchalantly.

Joker looked up and then rapidly leapt out of the way of a massive trumpet. Metalbeard roared a battle cry and ran across the flamethrowers and catapults, wildly swinging his trumpet arm towards Joker. Joker responded by falling onto his back and firing off his guns with a rapid volley of '_Ptptptptpttpewpewpewpttptptptptt_' for maximum shots. Metalbeard raised his piano leg which he was still playing to cover himself.

Seeing his chance, Joker reached out and threw both guns to Metalbeard and rapidly scrambled up the JokGarmaMonkShark. Stars embedded into the side of the machine, which he rapidly used to leap his way further and further up the machine. Garmadon pulled them into an even tighter radius, meaning the cannons were almost firing point blank.

"YAARRGGHH!" Metalbeard brought his trumpet down, knocking Joker over. He slid over the top of the main fin, unable to find any purchase. He hung there as Metalbeard crested it, leaning over to point that same trumpet in Joker's face.

"Ye ship be ours!" Metalbeard shouted, "Give up and we be granting both of thee a spot in the brig!"

"Oh yeah?" Joker looked down with a dark grin, "Tell me, Metalbeard, what do you get when all five navy ships of the same go down?"

"Eh?" Metalbeard blinked, "What trickery be this?"

"A ROYAL FLUSH!" Joker laughed, suddenly drawing out tiles of face cards all of the heart suit. He thrust each one up into Metabeard's face, who shouted as he lost his grip. Garmadon jerked the JokGarmaMonkShark to the left, causing Metalbeard to be knocked straight off towards the ground.

"PIRATE GUY!" Robin shouted, turning the Kraken fully to go to ram straight into the JokGarmaMonkShark. Garmadon, seeing this, grinned and directed them head on, his guns trained on the build in full.

Just before either of them could make another move, a flash of black and various warm shades shot in front of them. Two massive bats, both the side of the Garmashark, wrapped their feet around the two creatures and yanked them apart. Garmadon and Joker both shouted as they were pulled back, while Metalbeard stopped as he was caught in a foot. He was gently set back down atop his Kraken.

"Now what in the brick do you two think you're doin'?!" The warm colored bat spoke up, revealing a face to be Watevra herself, "We ain't even made our way back yet and you are already up to a fight? Batman, you said Joker would hold back!"

From a yellow cockpit in the bat's face, Batman popped out, "Uh, nope, I said that he wouldn't fight me. Never said anything about other people. Maybe that Garmadon is a bad influence."

"Hey, don't you start blaming me in this!" Garmadon stamped his foot, "The declaration of war was MUTUAL!"

"I don't care if you two declared you was gonna destroy each other's builds or give each other hugs, you had one job and that was to WAIT until we got here!" Watevera's wing came down to lightly smack Garmadon, then Metalbeard.

"Oh yeah, he's totally the worst one here. Like, I bet if they made a movie out of Garmadon, it's totally be the bomb. Nobody wants to go see a Garmadon movie. Another Batman adventure though-"

"Don't you go startin' anything!" Watevra shot at Batman, "Your son nearly got hurt and you're sittin' here making fun of someone you don't like cause you ain't as ripped as him!"

"I-I, y-you… Robin!" Batman sputtered and turned his attention to his son, "Robin, are you okay?"

"Yeah, padre, doing just fine!" Robin woozily shouted from the wheel of the kraken, "Though I think I don't wanna go to the ocean anymore…"

From the trees, finally the last two contenders walked forward. A massive wolf made of what could only be described as diesel and steampunk mashed together and covered with construction equipment walked forward, each step causing its body to hiss and creak. Emmet sat happily in a small cockpit in the wolf's head with Lucy, who smirked as she made the creature walk forward. Once they came to a stop in front of the group, she blinked.

"Uh, woah, what happened here?" Lucy looked to the bats, JokGarmaMonkShark and kraken, "I know we said the theme was animals but, uh, is that thing even a creature?"

"Is that thing even a four legged creature?!" Garmadon shot back.

"It's the LucEmmeWolf!" Emmet called out, "See, we both wanted to do something construction related, sssssoooooo we decided to compromise with steampunk and I added some color. It was gonna be a cat but then we realized Unikitty was also here.-"

"The LucEmmeWolf?" Garmadon growled, "You totally stole the naming convention we used for the JokGarmaMonkShark!"

"The WhaWhatWhat now?" Emmet asked innocently.

"Okay, Lulloyd, now is our chance!" Unikitty beamed, "Come on, let's do this!"

Lulloyd couldn't agree more; seeing his father get involved in another land/sea battle would be more than he could handle in just one day. He looked to Unikitty, who gave a determined grin and sat down onto her seat. Once she was in place, Lulloyd thrust his flower forward, causing it to give a click and then a loud whirl as the dragon shot straight up into the sky.

The crowd turned simultaneously to see the Dragonbow fly straight into the sky. As soon as they crested over the house, Lulloyd pulled the 'wheel' towards him by leaning back, causing the buttons to begin flashing a massive variety of colors. Unikitty rapidly swung her back leg out and struck them, causing each of the parts of the dragon's fireworks to begin prepping. In the meantime, Lulloyd sent the dragon into a spiral, letting it fly over the crowd.

As soon as they were about to leave the line of sight, Lulloyd spun the wheel with all he had, causing the dragon to veer incredibly sharply. He could hear the fireworks igniting, and he needed to make sure they were above the group when they went off. The dragon went to roar, but instead a burst of candy came out and sprayed the treetops. Emmet and Robin were fast enough to run up and catch some before it was lost.

The fireworks began to spark as soon as Lulloyd was over the group. He drew the dragon to go straight up into the sky, its body twisting into the rainbow colors as it shot towards the sky. Just as it reached an apx, Lulloyd let go and let the dragon right itself. Instantly, the legs all fired off, scorching out in random directions before they exploded into massive displays of light. Each firework along the dragon went off in a blaze, arcing out into a similar display as they did. The sky was lit up with lights as Lulloyd and Unikitty were taken over by gravity, falling towards the group as the light show burst around them.

Just before the Dragonbow hit the ground, Lulloyd smacked a button on the middle of the flower. The dragon sprouted a second set of legs that smacked into the ground, stopping it right before the two were smashed by it. Seeing the group turning to them, Lulloyd grabbed Unikitty -who let out a long mrrow of shock- and then leapt up into the air, did a double flip, and threw Unikitty into the air so when he landed, he posed and reached out to grab ahold of Unikitty as she fell.

"Now that's how you put on a show!" Lucy shouted, "Good one, green ninja!"

"Oh my g-o-s-h!" Emmet followed, "That was a great entrance! Like, I didn't even know entrances could be that good!"

"Twas a marvelous display of ye handlin' skills!" Metalbeard concurred with a piano riff.

"Wheeww-wee I don't think I've seen anything that grand since our honeymoon, right, bats?" Watevera clapped her wings and then nudged Batman's bat.

"We agreed we wouldn't talk about that until we got the papers back," Batman grumbled, "But, yeah, I guess I could say that was nearly Batman worthy."

"Man, G, you really taught him how to strut his stuff!" Joker nuzzled up to Garmadon, "You did teach him that, right?"

"Where did h- Yeah of course I taught him that!" Garmadon laughed out, "TOTALLY taught him all about that. Totally."

"Might mean he's ready to lead his own division, eh, G?" Joker grinned, "I wouldn't mind helping him with some leadership skills. Let him plan a heist, deal with the cops…"

"You know, not to discredit you as a possible venue for teaching him, but how exactly are we gonna judge all of these things?" Garmadon narrowed his eyes, "...My vote goes to Lulloyd."

"Hey!" Batman snapped, "You can't do that! That's nepotism. I've learned a lot about nepotism lately. Tell em, honey."

"I don't think we even talked about judges," Watevera pointed out, "Well ain't this just a pickle."

"How we supposed to see who wins without a judge?" Lucy sat back and propped a foot up on the controls, "I don't think Emmet's house could handle us trying to see who has the sturdiest build."

"No it cannot!" Emmet added happily, "Wait, uh, we aren't going to have to rebuild my house, are we? I don't have the instructions I based it on anymore!"

"Uh… how about we just say we all won and that's that?" Robin blinked, "I mean, I think this all looks great! And only one of them has tried to blast me so far!"

"Hmm… kid's got a point," Batman nodded.

"Oh you're just saying that because your kid is the one who said it!" Garmadon countered.

"You voted for the sparkly dragon cloud thingy because your kid was the one who made it!"

"You didn't mention the rainbows!" Unikitty shouted from Lulloyd's arms.

"Okay, come on guys, let's settle this like adults!" Lucy raised her arm, "Everyone in favor of just agreeing we all won, say 'aye!'"

All but Garmadon and Batman shouted their affirmation, the two staring each other down from their respective cockpits too harshly to speak to one another. Lucy just rolled her eyes and called out, "Alright, then let's head back into Emmet's place and party!"

"PARTY!" Unikitty shouted, leaping fully from Lulloyd's arms and bounding back to the house.

"Someone get a limbo stick!" Joker called out as he slid down from the JokGarmaMonkShark, "I've been working on my flexibility since my last heist!"

"Yeah… I'm never going to go out to a conga line ever again," Batman shuddered, the cockpit opening for him to grapple his way out.

"Come on, son!" Garmadon laughed as he rushed up to Lulloyd, "Let's go have some fun! Think of this like the celebration after a victory!"

"Uh, didn't, need that but, okay dad," Lulloyd smiled gently, "Let's have some fun."

* * *

"Come on, come on!" Lucy slammed her hands on her lap, "COME ON YOU GOT THIS!"

Lulloyd gasped as he tried to steady his sword. On the stud enough, the group had been steadily adding item after item. A hole had already been made in Emmet's roof to allow for the stack to rise even higher. Lulloyd was currently balancing the sword with both hands with the tip on a coffee table, doing his best to hold it.

"I be addin' the final piece!" Metalbeard shouted from the rooftop, "The bet be at its peak!"

Metalbeard added a frog at the top of the stack. Lulloyd shouted as the sword violently lurched, forcing his arms to wrench still. Lucy and the others all held their breaths as the sword wobbled more, and Lulloyd strained to hold it. Five tense seconds went by, and Lulloyd held firm. The room went up in cheers and groans simultaneously.

"Oh yeah, I told you he had this!" Lucy brushed his blue hair back, "Anybody with moves that slick has amazing balance!"

"Well, like, he doesn't have muscles," Batman grumbled.

"G-Guys…" Lulloyd huffed, "P-Please, take, down, tower…"

Metalbeard obliged by thrusting his trumpet arm right at the level of the roof to cleave the tower down for him. Lulloyd sighed and slowly disassembled it and placed the vases, TV, mats, pots, pans, alarm clock, and whatever else they'd scavenged back into place. Metalbeard fixed the roof as Lulloyd did so, much to Emmet's sigh of relief.

"You're so totally in Lulloyd!" Joker laughed, "Man, why didn't we invite you guys before?!"

"I-I dunno," Lulloyd blushed as he replaced the tassel, "I mean, uh, it was kinda like, we weren't even connected to you guys before. And, uh, you know, the Ka-are isn't always reliable…"

"Nah, that thing is on a weekly schedule," Garmadon paused, "I mean, I normally just popped into here and then took the nearest portal to Gotham. Course once I really started getting into attacking the city I had to stop for awhile. Had to come up with more ways to beat those ninjas, you know?"

"Wait a minute," Batman leaned in, "Joker, you had another villain in Gotham all this time and you never told me?"

"Because I knew this was how it was gonna turn out, Bats!" Joker huffed, "Look, I want to give you all the villains I can, but you two were at each other's throats before I could say the word! I wanted to ease you guys into this, and well, I had hoped this party was gonna be it."

"Well," Batman paused, "Alright, I don't know if I hate him yet. I just don't like him flaunting all those abs there. He's cheating with that height there."

"You're just jealoussssssssss!" Garmadon drew out his 's' and quickly covered his mouth, "Heh, sorry, snake side of me came out there for a minute."

The room quietly laughed and distributed out drinks. Lulloyd was putting his sword back on his back when Unikitty bounded up to him, a tray of two smoothies balanced on her back. She eagerly got up behind him and arched her back for him.

"Hey, Lulloyd! Want a smoothie? They're sssoooo sugary! I mean good! Wait, sugar IS good!" Unikitty sparkled.

"Sure, thanks Unikitty," Lulloyd took a red one, taking a sip and his eyes widening, "W-Wow, that's a really strong cherry flavor."

"Told you!" Unikitty smiled, bounding off back to the kitchen.

Garmadon watched the exchange and smirked. He walked up behind Lulloyd and moved to stand beside her. Lulloyd took notice after a few seconds of this. He looked up to his father, who was grinning cheekily at him.

"Don't look now, but I'm pretty sure that Princess has got a thing for you," Garmadon chuckled, "Your mother was the only one that ever brought me weapons, you know."

"..." Lulloyd looked off to Unikitty, who was putting the other smoothie into Emmet's fridge before bounding off back into the party, "Dad… I-I don't wanna even talk about that."

"Fine, fine, but I'm just saying, if you ever need someone to make a distraction, I'm your guy," Garmadon smirked, "You can think of me as the cool parent."

"Dad, if I wanted a distraction I'd say someone is attacking the city," Lulloyd sighed.

"And you're totally right you'd get a distraction from that! I'm the one with exclusive stomping rights in that city!" Garmadon responded ludicrously, "Can't believe you'd even think I'd let someone do that! The defenses would go off first!"

"Defenses…. Wait, dad," Lulloyd narrowed his gaze, "Is, that why the fisherman are getting their boats wrecked by underwater eel mines?"

"No, those are leftover from previous campaigns," Garmadon smirked, "It'd take something really big to get past them, don't you worry."

Lulloyd continued to eye his father, who just kept smiling before Joker walked by and waved something Lulloyd didn't see. Garmadon excused himself as the two traveled deeper into the house. Lulloyd was left to sit down, taking in the room in front of him.

Metalbeard was giving some wild tale about his time at the seas, to which Robin was half listening. Watevra was animating Metalbeard's story with her body as he went, turning from a ship to the waves to several sea monsters as it went, drawing Robin's attention for feverently. Batman grumbled as Lucy waved her hand for him to pay up, handing over a massive amount of batarangs that Lucy promptly gave to Emmet. Emmet was quick to give her a side hug and rushed to start placing them on the walls as decorations, much to Batman's chagrin. Lucy just patted his back and went to go and help her… husband? Boyfriend? Lulloyd wasn't sure.

"Hey, Lulloyd!" Unikitty bounded up once more, "Wanna go build some more?"

"Huh?" Lulloyd paused, "Uh… I mean, everyone here kinda has like, a lot more experience than me…"

"But the Dragonbow was so cool! I wanna make more rainbow creations with you! Do you know any other animals? Oh, oh, what about other things we can make?!" Unikitty hopped in place, "Will you? Please? Pretty pretty pretty pplleeasseee?"

Lulloyd thought for a minute. That thinking led him to stand up, a smile on his face. He slowly made his way towards the back door, then thrust it open and leapt outside. He landed with a spin on the grounding, giving Unikitty a smile.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Lulloyd called out, "Let's build!"

Unikitty happily made her way after him, rushing out to have more time of fun, building and more as the party continued on.

* * *

A far more lighthearted story than some of the others I will be telling in the future! I wanted to try my hand at writing a much larger ensemble cast, and given that I adore all four of the Lego Movies, I wanted to include this chapter! I always took issue that Ninjago was so disconnected from the other worlds, so Ninjaverse is as light retcon of that element... or is it an expansion? Regardless, this was most likely the silliest chapter I've written for NV, but also one of the most fun. I'll let you decide any references I used.


	3. Harumi - Vengeance

((Author's Note: If you wish to experience this chapter the way that I wrote it, after the line break, use the following music: watch?v=FwujVry7uVs Please note the opening of the video contains HS spoilers!))

At the base of the Garmatron, Harumi's friends fought for their lives.

"Where's Harumi?!" Ren shouted.

Carnelian shrieked in fear as a Stone Warrior raised its blade to run her through. Ren grappled with her own foe, holding back a spear from her own chest. Her gaze darting to Carnelian, Ren shut her eyes and yanked the spear out of her foe's hand, hurling the spear directly towards her friend. Before the warrior could attack her again, Ren leapt up into the air, her body shifted to that of a raven. The bird flapped away as another warrior attempted to slice at her. Ren shifted her body back to normal as she landed on Carnelian's attacker, sending it into the ground and delivering a hard kick to its head.

Seeing her chance, Carnelian lit her left fist on fire, grabbing the thrown spear as it soared into her. She caught the tip of the blade mere inches from her chest, the sight causing her breath to skyrocket. She thrust both hands onto the spear and let the fire consume it. The warrior backed away at the sight, at which point Carnelian froze the spear solid and struck the warrior over the head with it. The indestructible foe staggered, giving her time to rush to Ren.

"S-She was on the tower…" Carnelian panted, "..T-Told her not… not to go… g-got ambushed…"

"You let her go ALONE?!" Ren shouted, only to see Carnelian clutching at her side. Blood was pouring from a wound, and her hand seemed to be all that was keeping pressure on it.

"D...Do you think I'd let her go if I wasn't…. Wasn't… T-Tried... " Carnelian stumbled slightly, "...D-Dang it… I-I'm seeing double…"

"Where's Mizuko?!" Ren raised her hand to her head.

"She is currently not in the immediate vicinity," Olive's voice rang out over their comms, "I will attempt to discern her location as of present."

"Carnelian is hurt," Ren shouted, delivering a swift kick to an archer attempting to arrow her down, "She's not going to last much longer if we don't move!"

"I'll take her!" Raiden's voice sounded in Ren's comm, "Let me just… get to her!"

From across the battlefield, massive blue sparks filled the area. Raiden suddenly burst up into the air, his body surrounded in lightning as the warriors below were electrocuted into submission. When he landed, he rapidly leapt from their head to head towards Ren, his entire body charged with sparks. When he arrived beside Ren, his features were twisted with rage. His charged arm grabbed a warrior and threw him backwards, while his other hand grounded so he could reach out to grab Carnelian.

"Mizuko left to go and gather citizens to move them away from the battle," Raiden let more lightning fly as he spoke casually to Ren, "We need to make our way there!"

"No… Harumi went up there alone!" Ren thrust her hand to the massive black tower in the sky, "...She's going to fight him all by herself!"

"That… that can't be helped," Raiden hung his head, "We're doing our best to hold back the entire army right now. We lost the Helmet of Shadows, this is our only option! She… she'll have to do this herself!"

"NO!" Ren screamed, "Did you see her face?! She's not thinking clearly! Her… her father…"

Before she could continue, an arrow from across the field embedded in her right shoulder. Ren howled and dropped to one knee, her hand reaching up to see the extent. The sight of it sticking out of her flesh was sickening, and as she tried to grab hold of it, the pain made her vision shake. Raiden immediately leapt in front of his now two injured allies, lightning coursing out of his arms from his now blue sparkling eyes.

"We're getting out of here!" Raiden ordered, "Olive, tell everyone we're making our stand at the staging point!"

Ren felt Raiden's other arm reaching out to grab onto her. Gathering lightning in his legs, he charged his muscles to force himself to run faster than he normally could, carrying the two off across the field. As the three rapidly flew their way through the crowd, Ren raised her sights to the massive tower, and the terror that lay atop it.

The beast that she'd come to understand was the Overlord was perched atop his tower, watching the battle from his own amusement. A single flash of gold was so far up, it was hard to even make out what it was. It disappeared around the side of the tower, seemingly swallowed by the darkness.

"We've already evacuated the citizens," Raiden stated solemnly, "All we can do is let her handle this."

"Fine...Don't die, Harumi…" Ren whispered, clutching her arm, "Please…"

* * *

The Golden Mech took its final step up the massive tower. After Carnelian had driven the warriors off, Harumi hadn't met any resistance on her way up. The stairs wrapping around the blackened fortress seemed the perfect size for the mech as she ascended. She had considered flying up, but when she tried turrets had fired upon her. The Overlord wanted her to rise to meet him.

Harumi wasn't looking when the mech stopped. Her head was hung low, her hair stuck to her head with sweat and splatters of red. Her body almost seemed to hang limp in the controls, as though pilot and machine were reversed. The mech's dull gold stood out as a single ray of light within the purple and black that had shrouded the city,

The massive dragon form of the Overlord stood in front of her. The body that had once belonged to Lord Garmadon, her grandfather, was unrecognizable. The black dragon was almost too large for the perch that it stood on; even with his wings folded in his length made his head seem to hang off the top of the building. Just to allow Harumi to stand at the edge of the roof, his body was turned sideways with his head raised into the sky. His multiple eyes looked down to her, staring her down.

The Overlord slowly inhaled. For a moment, the mech took a fighting stance, Harumi's body still hardly moving. When he let it loose, he instead laughed. His laugh pierced the air, the mocking and degrading noise striking the hearts of all those close enough to take it in. Ren and the others below all winced as they heard the sound. Harumi did not stir.

"**You have taken his mech, then? You truly are a silly little girl if you think that alone can defeat ME!**" The Overlord declared, "**That machine was nothing more than the sword he used to hold back the blades of fate. A sword is nothing without its true master."**

Harumi did not respond. The Overlord surged forward, his wings opening wide. HIs neck wrapped around the back of her machine, while his wings moved to cover the sky above. Suddenly, her entire world was nothing more than darkness. From below, the light of the mech disappeared as the Overlord's mass seemed to swallow her into the void of shadows.

"**I must at least thank you for coming this far,**" The beast's noise came from all around, bouncing across every surface of the mech, "**Most would have given up long before now. Your very friends down below are shuddering in their skin as they look upon me. You are either a very brave, or a very foolish girl to have come this far. Either will net you the same end.**"

Harumi slowly raised her head. Her eyes were vacant and hollow. Tears streaks were stained into her face, and her pupils were unfocused and distant. Her hands had a death grip on the controls, the only thing that seemed to be anchoring herself in the machine. Her gaze slowly drifted towards a space off to her left.

"**This is the battle that even HE could not finish. What makes you think a girl as weak and worthless as yourself could ever do that HE couldn't!?**" From the darkness, glowing eyes of malice formed to stare into her, "**What is it that makes you even more special than him, hmm? You are an ignorant fool to believe you could do anything by coming here! If you had stayed on that pitiful island, I would have let you lived out your remaining days in misery at least. But it seems you are eager for your end. Like father… like daughter.**"

Harumi's head perked up somewhat. The darkness around her vanished, and when it did she found her mech was now standing in the middle of the roof. The Overlord had taken to the skies, his wings stirring the winds. The force rattled the plating on the mech. Harumi's expression slowly shifted as she moved to let her gaze vaguely orient towards his head.

"...I'll… kill you…" Harumi whispered.

"**What was that?**" The Overlord laughed, "**I couldn't hear you over the sound of your own fear!**"

"I'll kill you…." Harumi forced out again.

The Overlord raised his head up and opened his jaws. From them, a massive plume of pure purple flame shot into the sky. The clouds that had covered the city were parted for a brief moment, only for their light to be snuffed out by the darkness plugging it up. The Overlord let his jaws snap shut, the flame pillar rising into the sky. The darkness swallowed up the sky again, leaving those on the ground to shudder as cold dread filled their bodies.

"I'll kill you." Harumi repeated again.

"**Speak louder, great-granddaughter! You dishonor his legacy if you cannot even raise your voice to me!**" The Overlord shouted. His face shot forward, his eyes leveling with the mech's pilot, "**Or has the blood of your father dried your throat shut as well?**"

Harumi's eyes shot open.

The Overlord let out a bellow as a massive burst of gold fired from the mech. A pillar of golden light, mirroring his own taunt, raised into the sky. The mech's systems grew to their peak as it was flooded with pure golden creation energy. The Overlord flapped backwards as the sword of the mech grew in size, morphing into a glistening broadsword. Its body glowed with such intensity that Ren and the others, all the way at the bottom of the tower, were forced to shield their eyes. Yet it was not the mech itself that drew the Overlord's gaze.

Harumi's eyes were glowing golden. Her elemental robes likewise turned to pure gold, the red stains upon them shining with their light. Her hair began to glisten as the white locks splayed out behind her, the energy coursing through her making it float in the air. Her hands regripped the controls of the mech, energy wisping off of her every inch. As she raised her eyes, the tears stained burned away from the raw heat she gave off, and a black energy crackled around her lips as she screamed:

"**I'L****L** **K****I****L****L YOU!****!****!"**

The Overlord didn't even see the first swing. His instincts were all that let his feet raise up to catch the broadsword from cleaving his chest in two. He flung it away, but the mech had raised its other arm to open its palm. Golden light burst out towards him, the lasering firing off into the distance. The dragon rolled to his right to avoid it, raising his own jaws open and unleashing a torrent of dark flames directly onto the building. The entire fortress shook to its very foundation as the flames scorched the earth behind them.

Harumi screamed to him in turn, the mech placings its hands together. A Rhotate disc bigger than any had seen before formed, raising up and firing straight into the oncoming fire. The spinning disc cut straight into the flames, splitting the stream around either side of the mech. Harumi made the mech grip the sword with both hands and rush forward, firing the jets in its feet to carry it into the air to slice towards the dragon's head.

The Overlord's tail snapped across his body, striking the side of the mech as it flew into the air. Harumi went tumbling through the air, the disc below fizzling out. The dragon's fire ceased, revealing the entire right half of the roof and several floors had been melted down to smoldering purple ash and slag.

The mech had shot through the air, Harumi shouting as she brought the sword down again. The Overlord rapidly swung his body out of the way as the mech swung with brazen speed, each slice carving through the air hard enough to make buildings below shake from the wind it produced. She swung again, again and again once more, each time missing or having it knocked away by his talons. She brought the massive blade overhead, its length burning with golden energy. With an enraged howl, she brought it down overhead.

The Overlord's tail thrust up once more, spikes along its length catching the sword mid-swipe. The mech stalled as Harumi gunned with all she had, trying to push the sword down towards the dragon. With another laugh, the Overlord spun his tail about, causing the mech to soar backwards through the sky to hold onto its weapon.

"**YOU CHALLENGE ME IN THIS STATE?!**" The Overlord howled in mirth as his talons caught the chest of the mech in the air, "**YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND YET, DO YOU? NINJAGO. IS. MINE!**"

With a rapid spin of his body, the Overlord sent the mech soaring backwards into the scorched tower. The golden light pulsed as it drove through floor after floor to stop its descent. By the time it had stopped, the Overlord was framed against nearly ten floors above it. When Harumi opened her eyes, she saw the massive head looming over her, jaws opening wide to send flame straight down to roast her alive.

The mech's sword sliced out the side of the building, letting her narrowly avoid the flames. Even more of the tower was melted as the fire scorched the interior, melting floor after floor with the intense flames. The mech one more raised its arm towards the Overlord, firing off another burst of golden light towards the flying figure.

The Overlord felt the laser sting his left wing, letting out a long snarl. He turned his head towards Harumi, letting the flames spray from the building to her. The mech gripped its sword in hand and began rapidly spinning its wrist, blocking the incoming flame pillar with its rapid rotation. Harumi struggled against her control sticks, golden power crackling in her hand as she forced the controller for the arm down. The sword shot upwards and sliced straight down into the flame, sending golden light firing straight up into the beasts's jaws.

The mech lurched as a loud slice filled the air. Harumi turned with an enraged look to see the left arom of her mech, as well as the sword, falling to the ground. She rapidly spun her mech around to try to intercept with the next arm, but the Overlord had already shot down and wrapped his jaws around the midsection of the machine.

A sickening crunch filled the air as the Overlord bit down. Pieces of metal and sparks flew about as he put the full force of his power behind it, ready to tear the machine in two. Harumi yanked the control, the arm responding and firing a laser straight down into the Overlord's skull. Just above his eyes, a small hole burned into the thick skin, but the creature hardly even noticed.

The Overlord closed his jaws. The mech snapped in half, pieces flying as gravity finally took over. The two halves flew about, the now useless legs flying off towards the ground while the top half smashed into a tall building nearby. The remaining arm flopped out uselessly as it did so. Not to waste even a second, the dragon once more opened its jaws, unleashing the torrent of scorching darkness to melt the remainder of the mech and cockpit down to nothing.

"HARUMI!" Ren shouted from the ground. Her eyes focused with a terrified shock as she watched the roof melt under the assault, glass shattering as the heat filled the thing and the little glimmer of light fade away.

Like a single spark, a small ounce of light exploded from inside the flame. The light shot straight up the darkness once more, this time finding its true mark. The Overlord bellowed in pain as his throat was scorched by the pure light, causing his flames to spark out. Several feet above the now melted roof hovered a glowing ball of gold, and within the center of that gold was Harumi. Her elemental shield had transformed from green energy to pure golden power, and as her hair was now violently splaying out behind her, the anger shining within her eyes made even the Lord of Darkness give pause.

The shield dissipated, and in its place a massive golden dragon formed. Harumi's dragon had nearly doubled in size, her wingspan far larger and her jaws now far sharper. The dragon reared its head back and roared as Harumi drifted down into the elegant saddle, her hands gripping the reins. From around her body, dark energy continued to pulse down her sides, surrounding as some sort of dark aura. The dragon gave a mighty roar that shook the hearts of those nearly as hard as the Overlord's himself, then attacked.

The two dragons collided together, snapping and clawing at one another. Unable to spark fire with his burned mouth, the Overlord instead feraly snapped at the dragon as the two rolled through the air. Darkness and light both sparked and trailed behind them as they tussled, their backs colliding straight into a skyscraper. The Overlord finally threw Harumi off, sending her spiraling into the air.

The golden dragon raised his feet, forming massive Rhotate discs that began to rapidly fire straight from them faster than Harumi ever could. The Overlord soared out of the way and opened his own jaws, forming a disc and sending it crackling and spiraling towards her. The two dragons soared around one another, their discs rapidly turning and shifting to track the other as they flapped around. Stray discs collided into buildings or arced down into the streets, blasting holes into the pavement. Several level bridges were snapped as discs crashed into them.

Harumi steered her dragon straight around a building to attempt to avoid a fired disc, only to see the massive jaws of the Overlord awaiting her side as she cleared it. Harumi dropped her dragon and thrust her hands into the air, catching the disc with a massive shield of golden power. The disc spun and cut straight into the shield, shaking the entire construct. Harumi shouted and thrust her hands to the side, throwing shield and disc away from her. As the Overlord lunged forward, Harumi reached out and grabbed his upper lip, thrusting her feet down and forcing his jaws open. Golden energy gathered around Harumi as her eyes turned golden once more, sending a massive burst of energy straight from her body. The dragon howled in pain as his mouth was wrenched open, Harumi soaring backwards onto her waiting dragon again.

Her dragon shot forward again. Its teeth and claws dug into whatever surface it could find, biting down with whatever strength it had. The Overlord tried to shake her off, but she willed it to keep going. The jaws snapped. The claws raked down. The Overlord roared in pain as red lines were drawn in his flesh.

It wasn't enough.

Harumi drew her right hand back, gathering all of the power she could will inside of her. Her fist glowed so bright the gold turned to white as she thrust her hand down straight into the back of the Overlord. The massive explosion of golden energy sent a shockwave out across the skies. The dragon's back caved in at the spot.

Not enough.

The Overlord turn, thrusting Harumi off. The girl went flying backwards again, halting her momentum but forming her elemental shield as she went into a building. The Overlord's talons were upon her before she could counter. The Overlord soared straight up into the air, compressing his talons down on the shield. When he was high enough in the air, the Overlord slung her shield straight up into the air, then brought his tail upon it.

Harumi was sent hurtling towards the ground faster than she could use her newfound levitation to stop herself. She accelerated as she was sent straight down towards the streets, crashing through layer bridge after bridge as she went. When she finally struck the ground, the ripples spread out all the way to the buildings on either side, her ball cracking into the ground nearly five feet. The Overlord shot straight down from the skies to land beside her, shaking the earth as he did.

Harumi stood up unharmed, her limbs only slightly shaking. The dragon lunged forward to bite her, but Harumi sent her fist careening straight into his nose. The golden glow flared up as she shot into the air and towards him, sending her punches straight into his face. The dragon howled and began backing up on the streets, raising wings and tail to strike her off. Harumi slung her feet and hands wildly, striking whatever got close enough to be a threat to her. Each strike sent the part of the Overlord whipping backwards, several times his head cracking more buildings around them.

"**The people still remain!**" The Overlord attempted to shout, "**Your recklessness will result in their-**"

"**SHUT UP!**" Harumi thrust her hand down on his head, sending it to the side. Her knee came up to send his head snapping into the air, and then both of her hands thrust his neck down to crack into her foot. His entire body was sent flipping backwards from the result of the assault.

Not enough.

As the Overlord raised his head, one of his eyes was now bleeding just above it, causing his face to run with purple blood. The dragon cried out in pain and anger. As the Overlord thrust his legs and wings out to steady himself, his eyes lifted up to stare at her with a newfound malice.

The dragon rapidly ran forward, its wings carrying it faster than any run ever could. With its wings it picked up cars and ripped chunks from the buildings, thrusting them out towards Harumi. Harumi thrust her forearm and knees into the projectiles to shatter them. The Overlord shot out to attack once more, sending its jaws forward. Harumi raised her shield in front of her to prepared for it, but just as she readied herself for the impact his tail thrust about to smack into her side. She yelled out in brief pain before her body was sent straight into the streets with a massive cloud of rubble.

Harumi shot upwards to grab hold of the massively clawed foot that reached out to grab her, but the other foot wrapped around her side instead. Harumi was lifted from the ground and slammed into a building again, by now the damage to the city making the sound of broken glass sheer noise to her. Blood burst from her lip as the impact crashed into her back. She rapidly sent golden power out from her torso to thrust the talons away, swerving to avoid another thrust of those deadly jaws.

"**You cannot defeat ME!**" The Overlord roared, bringing his chin down atop of Harumi. The impact sent her into the ground again, making her gasp in pain again as the air was knocked out of her, "**You are a CHILD, I was created BEFORE YOU WERE BORN!**" The Overlord brought his tail down atop her, "**You tell me to silence myself? I will silence you, PERMANENTLY!**"

Harumi gathered golden power in her forearms, bracing each strike of the Overlord. His tail rapidly struck her, forcing her down further and further into the ground with every strike. Her feet buckled as she fell to her knees, her forearms raised overhead as the Overlord continued to beat her down into the pavement. She hunched over, guarding herself as each strike made her arms more and more numb.

"**I am DARKNESS! I am FEAR! I am TERROR! I! AM! THE! OVERLORD!**" The Overlord punctuated his final few beatings with a tail strike that shook the ground blocks away. With his last strike, he swung his tail horizontally, catching Harumi off guard and sending her flying off into the distance.

When Harumi landed, her body all but rolled off of the tree she had crashed into. She'd been knocked all the way to the park. Hazily, she forced her body up. Her vision wasn't working right. Her arms felt numb, and her legs felt slow. The sensible part of her brain told her she needed to stay down. That part was washed away with a wave of anger. She burned more power into her arms and legs to force the to move. Her body seemed to hover straight into the air.

_Harumi… _

Harumi snarled, she tried to move forward, but a searing pain in her chest made her stop. She looked down. Was that her father's blood, or her blood? Her… father's… blood… Her eyes set with anger again. She tried again to hover forward. Her body failed her, and she simply went down onto her knees instead. She leaned forward on her hands. Was it getting harder to breathe..?

_Harumi! _

"...What…?" Harumi half responded to the voice, and half simply questioned what was going on. Once more she tried to force her body to move. It was sluggish.

_Harumi, listen to me. The Ninja will be here soon. You need to take the Weapons! _

"Who… who are you…?" Harumi coughed. She gripped the tree. Slowly, she pulled herself upright. Her body quaked as she forced herself to move. Everything hurt.

_Garmadon. Harumi… I'm here, your attacks have loosened his hold on me,_ Garmadon's spirit rang in her head, _Harumi… you cannot defeat him as you are now. _

It wasn't enough. Harumi's fingers dug into the tree so hard it splintered around her grasp. The action only made her loose her grip and start to slide down again. She coughed and made herself stand up once. She wobbled on her feet as she did, trying to make herself move. Off in the distance, she could see the Overlord slowly crawling towards her.

_Harumi, please. Please. I need you to… to avenge my son…_ Garmadon's voice cracked, _Harumi, your wield the Golden Power. You must use it. My father, when he created the Golden Weapons he shaped them using his power. Some of his power is sealed within them. You can defeat the Overlord if you tap into that power! _

"Grandpa…" Harumi coughed out, "...I'm… I'm sorry… I couldn't…"

_There is nothing you could have done, Harumi. I have contacted Somnam, he is having the ninja bring you the Golden Weapons. Harumi, you must not hesitate to strike the final blow. I will lend you the power that I have to allow for you to wield all four weapons at once! _

"You'll… you'll die…" Harumi staggered forward, "Destroying his body… that's your body…"

_It ceased to be my body the second he took it over. We do not have time. You will die if we wait! _Garmadon exhaled, _I brought evil upon this world. I know what I did to you, to your mother, and to my son was wrong. My head is clear for the first time in years, Harumi. I need you to do this, for me. If not for me, then for Lloyd. Do not hesitate to strike the final blow. _

"Harumi!"

Harumi turned her head to side. Standing across the street from here were Kai, Cole, Jay and Zane. All of them held their respective Golden Weapons. All of them were bleeding from some point, heaving from the battle the Stone Army was putting up. Harumi slowly stumbled forward towards them, but the Overlord's head crested between the buildings nearby.

"Catch!" Kai drew his arm back, then thrust his sword threw the air at Harumi, "Take him out, Harumi!"

"You got this, Harumi!" Cole added, the scythe flying to her.

"You can do it!" Jay shouted, his nunchucks sparking as they soared through the skies.

"Avenge him, Harumi!" Zane shouted, throwing his shurikens at her, "We know you have the power, use it!"

"**Insects!**" The Overlord thrust his claw down towards them, scattering them as the force knocked them down, "**If you believe that she will succeed as she is now, you must be clinging to the faintest hope I will leave you alive when this battle comes to pass!**"

Harumi's eyes widened as she watched the ninja scatter. Her hands reached out to catch the Sword of Fire. Before it reached her, she instead felt her golden aura expanding. The aura caught the sword a foot from her body, hovering and rotating about her torso. The Scythe of Quakes was next, hovering about her body beside the sword. Both the nunchucks and shurikens caught in the aura too. It was like when the weapons had first reacted to her. When she'd become… the Green Ninja.

_The weapons will give you strength! _Garmadon's voice, strained now, appeared again, _Take the weapons and strike him down, Harumi! I will protect you from their full power! _

Harumi reached out. Her hand wrapped around the hilt of the Sword of Fire. As soon as it did, flames traveled up her arm and consumed her body. Her eyes opened wide as she felt a surge of warmth flowing through her. The injuries she had seemed to fade away as she held the sword. As the energy flowed into her, so too did her own into the sword. After a few seconds, the power in her body returned.

With a massive cry, Harumi shot into the air and towards the Overlord. The Sword of Fire raised high overhead. A pillar of flame so tall it seemed to stretch into the sky shot upwards from the Sword, raining down onto the Overlord as he lorded over the ninja. The flames burned straight into his back, earning her a wail of shock and confusion. Her hands turned and swung the sword around, slicing his back apart with pillars of flames that left scorches across the walls and the ground it touched. The sheer heat from the sword made all but Kai raise their arms to cover their faces.

The Overlord roared. He took off into the sky again, attempting to escape the onslaught. Harumi rose into the air with him, throwing the sword back into her aura and grabbing the nunchucks of lighting. She spun them, she spun them harder than anything she ever had in her life. As she did, the heavens above seem to still and split apart with the massive cracks of lighting as the dark clouds loosed hundreds of bolts of lightning down onto the Overlord's wings. The smell of burning flesh wafted to her.

Not enough.

Her left hand grabbed a Shuriken of Ice. She fired her golden power into it, causing the Overlord's entire right wing to freeze with ice. His body began to plummet from the skies. He foot came to break the ice apart, allowing him to stop before he crashed. The pain from the ice caused the wounds from her punches to crack and bleed.

Harumi shot above him, screaming as she brought the Scythe of Quakes down onto his back. The sound of the impact followed by the sound of bone snapping and crunching under the blade echoed through the sky. The Overlord cried out in pain, his tail whipping around to attack her again. Harumi spun the scythe as though it weighed nothing, then thrust it upwards straight into the tail. The force broke the tail, causing the end to crack and hang at an angle as pain coursed through it.

Not enough.

Harumi raised the sword of fire again, spinning her entire body in a rapid circle. The flames gathered around her body, whipping and crackling as they sent a flash of orange light across the blackened streets. Once gathered, Harumi thrust the Sword of Fire out, causing the flames to fire straight into the Overlord's side. The sheer force burned a hole straight into his left shoulder, exposing the now burned flesh underneath.

The hole froze over in ice, only to be crashed into the scythe. Once more ones cracked and caved in as the force of earth came down upon him. Enraged, the Overlord thrust his jaws out to wrap around her body, but lightning rained down from the skies above to rapidly burn into his head instead. As his body convulsed, the Sword of Fire sliced straight into one of his eyes, burning the entire thing from his head with an acrid stench.

Not. Enough.

Harumi screamed, pouring ounce of golden power after ounce into the shurikens of ice. The Overlord's entire body froze over, sending him straight down into the side of a building. He tumbled about, crashing down onto the streets below. The impact shattered the ice. Before she could raise another weapon, the Overlord managed to spark another flame from his burned throat in desperation, sending it towards Harumi. Harumi barely managed to send her golden power to burst it away in time, giving him time to soar back up.

Lightning shot down and surrounded the scythe. With a massive spin, Harumi brought it down on his head. The Overlord's neck snapped down at an unnatural angle, forcing him to physically snap it back into place as he looked up. The hole in his shoulder and burns on his back were beginning to heal. He could regenerate.

It had to be ENOUGH!

Harumi turned. Her arm was burning. She looked to see the Sword of Fire. Bits of golden metal were dripping onto her arm. All of the golden weapons were beginning to melt. The sheer amount of power she had in them had heated them all to their limits. Their respective elements began to leak from them like water from a faucet.

_Harumi, I can't… I can't hold the power back for much longer! _Garmadon shouted to her, _If you are going to kill him, you must do it NOW! _

Harumi's eyes focused. She looked to the melting metal. She needed this. This was enough. It would be enough. She wouldn't fail her father. Her mind raced. The Overlord stumbled onto a rooftop and growled as his body snapped back into place. She had to do something. Do it now.

Harumi grabbed all the weapons. All of them came forward, thrusting together. Her power flowed with all she had into them. Her body began to pulse gold as all the weapons heated to their absolute limit. Metal dripped together as she used her hands to hold them together, melting them all into one mass. At the same time, she forced them. She forced everything she could feel inside of them out. The power of the First Rhotate Master was sealed inside. She had to melt it out.

A combined hailstorm of fire, earth, ice and lightning shot from the weapons. The Overlord roared as the combined beams struck him, coursing through his body and draining all that it touched. He caved to the ground under the onslaught as Harumi forced everything the weapons had from them. Every drop of power. Every ounce of elements. The air around her crackled from the pressure difference, her body was sweating from the heat released, and her bones rattled from the earth shaking power she unleashed. She continued, continued even as the weapons lost all shape and melted together into one mass. Her golden power surrounded them as she wrung them for everything she had.

With a massive scream of agony and exertion, the mass of weapons burst out in power. The Overlord flinched as the raw energy seemed to pulse out from Harumi. Harumi hung limp in the air, her hands clinging to something. Something that was no longer the Golden Weapons, yet the mstill. A single weapon, a long shake with a pointed end and a beautiful dragon-sculpted flared bashing end on the other. The weapon was taller than she was. It was a weapon forged out of hatred and willpower. A true weapon. A Mega Weapon.

"**W-What?**" The Overlord stared at her in terror, "**Y-You poured all of your golden power into that?! What sort of madwoman are you?!**"

Harumi did not respond. As it was, her golden power felt… drained. The Mega Weapon pulsed with it. Whatever she had was trapped inside the thing, or being used to keep her from vaporizing just from touching it. When her eyes lifted, however, the hatred and determination wasn't gone. Instead, she spun the Mega Weapon in the air and shouted.

"I am Harumi Garmadon, Son of Lloyd Garmadon, and Granddaughter of Lord Garmadon! I am the Ultimate Rhotate Master, and I WILL KILL YOU!"

Harumi lunged forward. Everything she had left pulsed straight into her legs. The Overlord raised his head in terror, trying to spark his flames once more. It failed him, and he instead tried to take to the skies to save himself. Before he could, the golden dragon from before appeared on top of him. His body was slammed back down into the roof, wings pinned. He roared and writhed, but the golden dragon, flickering and quivering as it was, held him down.

The golden master screamed. She screamed as she shot with everything she had. Beside her, the spirit of Lord Garmadon thrusted with her. The two in spirit and reality cried out as then shot the Mega Weapon straight down towards the pinned head of the Overlord. The Overlord tried to thrust himself up, but when he did, he swore he saw Garmadon standing in front of him, holding him down with a single foot.

_This is for my son. _His spirit spoke his final words, _You do not. Hurt. My. Son.. _

Harumi's strike landed. The massive blade of the Mega Weapon buried deep into the Overlord's skull, planting down until less than half of the weapon protruded from his head. The Overlord screamed out in agony as pure golden power was pumped straight into his body, directly from his skull. Harumi planted her feet down onto his face and screamed back with him as she pushed every single bit of golden power she had from her body straight into the Mega Weapon. Everything she had, everything she could ever give, she put it into the Mega Weapon.

The Overlord's writhing turned from desperation into convulsion. His eyes rolled into his head as his essence seemed to burn away from the golden power. It coursed through every ounce of his blood, every bone in his body. The evil that he carried was vaporized by the light, and as Harumi's robes went from gold to green once more, his wings flared out and flapped once. Harumi's strength failed her as she was flung from the Overlord's head and off into the air.

The skin atop the Overlord's head seemed to turn liquid. The Mega Weapon slowly floated to the surface of it, orienting itself so the bottom pointed down towards his nostrils. Once it did, it flared again. Golden power arced out in vein-like lines across his forehead. The Overlord let out another final scream as his body began to shrivel and burn away into nothing. His wings melted and then vaporized into purple mist that faded as soon as it hit the skies, his legs and tail shrunk until they were gone entirely. His barrel continued to shrink and burn away until all that was left was his head.

"**NOOOO! NNNOOO! NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!**" The Overlord gave one last desperate plea as his essence fully burned away, leaving the Mega Weapon floating in the air. On the top of its massive blade, a stark black mural of the Overlord's dragon form burned into its surface on both sides. When the weapon fell to the ground, it burst out in golden light, flaring outwards in a massie shockwave that expanded across the city, across the land, across all of Ninjago. His essence, anything he had touched, was burned away by the cleansing.

Harumi fell through the skies, seeing only the flashes of light as the Overlord tried to resist his body becoming nothing more than light. As she fell, all of her energy was gone. As her robes flapped along with her fall, she could see they were no longer gold. The power in her body, was gone. Poured into the Mega Weapon. She had nothing left to give, nothing left to say, and nothing to do but fall.

"Harumi!" Harumi turned at the last minute to see an amber dragoness soaring towards her. Carnelian shot her arms out and caught Harumi as she fell towards the ground, the force causing the dragon to spiral down. Carnelian willed her dragon to send its wings out to stop its descent. The dragon went straight for the ground, hitting it roughly and thrusting forward until it dissipated, leaving Carnelian and Harumi to fall down onto the grass of the park once more.

"Harumi!" Carnelian shouted, "Come on, Harumi, oh god please don't be dead, please! I'm sorry, I'm sorry I wanted to go with you, I saw you, you were amazing!"

"C...Car…?" Harumi choked out. Carnelian moved her so she was laying on her back, allowing Harumi to watch the dark clouds above fade away.

"Yeah, yeah, it's me! You did it, Harumi! You beat him!" Carnelian shook Harumi's shoulders, "Come on, stay with me! Stay with me now! Don't, don't you leave us! Don't, don't you go leaving me! You can't leave me, not now!'

"T-The weapon…." Harumi's arms shot up to grab Carnelian's sleeves with what remained of her strength, "F-find… find the weapon… h-hide it… i-in the Golden Peaks… d-don't… don't touch it… t-the Overlord is inside…"

"Weapon? Yeah, yeah, sure, hide it in the Golden Peaks!" Carnelian smiled widely to assuage Harumi's doubts, "Come on, come on we need to get you to the others, this looks bad. Come on, Harumi! Come on!"

Harumi's head fell backwards. Carnelian yelped as her body seemed to go limp completely in her grasp. As the loss of energy in her body pulsed within her, Harumi slowly muttered something over Carnelian's wails of terror.

"I-I did it… dad…" Harumi whispered, "...T-Thank you… grandpa... " With that, Harumi's world faded to black.


	4. Monty - Acceptance

Monty let his head hang as he looked down towards the counter of the shop. The shop was always the same,. There was hardly ever a change in the big goods in the store unless some collector was coming by. No matter how many purchases he handled, the sights never seemed to change. There was the box of aeroblades that he never touched in fear of finding out if a prick was enough to end him, there were the same flags on the wall he never cared to research, the fake Serpentine Staffs Ronin had up until he could work out where the ninja kept the real ones… there was the same everything.

Nobody ever came in the shop, or at least not enough to stave away Monty's eternal boredom. Stiix was always the same backwater town that nobody ever wanted to visit. Monty was pretty sure at this point that nobody even cared to put it on a map given how many clients that contacted Ronin didn't know where his shop actually was.

Stiix was the same, just like Ninjago.

It was almost funny how easy life slid back into place. The Overlord was gone, and aside from Morro going around and flaunting his new golden robes, nothing seemed to have changed. It didn't matter that Monty had been inside the Overlord when he was burst, it didn't matter that he'd felt that darkness and felt the way that Garmadon was drowning in it. Ninjago picked up the pieces and not more than a week later, everything was just back to normal.

Monty half wished that it wasn't normal. Part of him wished that something else would come down for him to go and have some fun. Those Stone Warriors had been great to test his wind powers on, even if he couldn't fully take them out. Possessing one was even more fun, as their intellect was so simple it was like taking control of a machine. Of course, once they were given more dark matter he found his control was far harder to maintain, but he wanted to try again.

He wanted to be able to do _something_ again.

"Hey, kid!" Just in time. Monty slid his head to the right to see Ronin leaning up against the entrance to the back rooms. Monty let out a small yawn and pushed himself upright. Even if he didn't need to sleep nor even need to feel tired, it seemed some human characteristics just hadn't had the proper number of years to be fully forgotten.

"What, Ronin?" Monty stretched his arms out, "I'm watching the shop, just like you asked."

"Yeah, I could tell by your go-get-'em customer service attitude there," Ronin held something up, "Here, I got this for you."

Monty looked it over. Ronin was holding a flashy blue cape, the colors fading from blue into indigo moving to the tips. The cloth looked heavy and firm, something that was meant to keep a general shape and not easily be flapped around. Monty stared at it for a few minutes, his eyes appraising it. He used his wind to gently lift the side of the cape to show that the colors were mirrored on the other side.

"I wanted a side cape…" Monty groaned, "The material looks good though."

"Yeah, I thought you could cut it in half and use half as a side cape and then like, I dunno, use the other half for a flag or something," Ronin smirked, "I mean, you already got your windy thing, having a flag wouldn't hurt you would it?"

"Sure, that way when they shoot at me for raising my banner they'll be too shocked at me still moving to fight back," Monty took hold of the cape from Ronin by using his wind to pull it over, gently running his hand over the material to appraise it. Ronin watched him do so with his simple smile that he always seemed to have.

"I'd have to stitch it myself if I cut it in half, you know," Monty groaned, "Way more work."

"I know you have an entire chest just for that," Ronin chuckled, "I'm the one that stole it for you, after all."

"So, you got me a gift knowing that I'd have to do work on it just to make it usable? Wow, you really understand how to give a gift, Ronin!" Monty waved an arm sarcastically.

"Well you certainly got the gift of gab there," Ronin smirked at him, "I knew you wanted the material, it was the best I could do."

"If it's the _best_ you could do, then I guess it'll work," Monty shrugged his shoulders.

"Thought you'd say that," Ronin crossed his arms, "So, you also wanna get out of this shop?"

Monty raised an eyebrow, "What, you got someone coming after you and need protection?" Monty reached down to draw a revolver from his belt.

"Nah, I got a new client for us. Turns out that the Master of Form, the first one, had this big cache of treasure hidden out in the frozen wastes. Hid it real good so only a Master of Form could find it. We're gonna meet this woman named Chamille up there, she's the current Master of Form," Ronin smirked, "And yeah, she's pretty."

"We're not getting into another fight with some jealous boyfriend, Ronin," Monty stretched his back, "So, you want me to go to a place of frozen water and help some stranger find a cache of treasure? How about I go get you an iron suit and ask you to go fish me out some slag from Torchfire Mountain?"

"Look, I know that snow doesn't hurt you unless it melts. I'll make sure to give you stuff so you don't get wet, alright?" Ronin leaned forward, "You honestly think I'd take my partner into a death trap?"

"Depends, have I done anything to tick you off these past few days?" Monty asked pointedly.

"Nah, not yet. And I know that you might want another reason to come, so…" Ronin paused, "The first Master of Form is always drawn with a big flowing cape."

"...A cape you say?" Monty asked quietly, "How big?"

Ronin tossed a piece of parchment onto the counter in front of Monty. Monty slowly set aside the cape Ronin had given him and unfurled it. It was clearly a cut out of a larger parchment, showing a figure depicted in lavender colors. They were standing atop a hill, and from the definition of their torso, Monty guessed they were male. But his eyes were drawn to the fact they were wearing a cape that was billowing out in the wind, clearly one that could easily wrap around their entire body. Monty stared at it for a few minutes, deducing its size, what it was likely made out of and anything else he needed.

"I know that after all that stuff with the Overlord you've kinda been cooped up in here," Ronin rubbed his head, "Figured that you'd wanna go out and get out of this place. Plus, you know, I know you love your-"

"When do we leave?" Monty rolled up the parchment and tossed it back to Ronin.

"Tomorrow morning," Ronin waved his hand, "Come on, we're gonna make sure we outfit REX for the Frozen Wastes. It can get pretty intense up there. It's gonna be a cold one."

* * *

_It was raining again. _

_The ghost curled up in the cave. The cave mouth curved slightly down, meaning he had to push his body fully back up into the wall. At times, his back would phase through the muddy wall behind him. It took concentration to keep his body from randomly going through things now. _

_Lightning lit up the dark cave, followed by a crash of thunder that would have rattled the ghost's bones if he still had them. He just curled up even more in response to it. The last village had gotten frightened when he entered. A roof over his head would have been nice. At the very least he would have appreciated a cloak to give him some protection from the rain. _

_The water poured further down into the cave. The ghost nervously raised his hand and unleashed a stream of wind. Using it felt strange, as if he had been given a weapon too large for him. But it was all he had now, and at least it seemed to compliment his body having little mass. He didn't like the way that it felt when he used it either. It wasn't his power, and yet it had somehow replaced it. _

_When the rain stopped, he'd keep moving. If he kept going for a few days he'd eventually reach Jamanikai Village. He had wanted to stay at the last stone-walled village, but once the leader had returned he'd been run off. At least he'd been given a cape from one of the mothers there. Even if he couldn't feel warmth, it was at least enough to give him the impression of it now. It seemed caves and such would be all he could do until he managed to get his hands on something. _

_A bright light illuminated the cave. The ghost raised his hand to cover his face as the light poured in. It was slightly yellow, meaning it couldn't be from thunder. He stood up slowly, tightening the cape he had around his shoulders. He hadn't even taken the time to tie it around his shoulders, afraid if he let go, it would be gone. _

"_Heya!" A cheerful and rough voice called out from the light, "Heh, finally found ya. Man, seems like the Wandering Spirit is a pretty accurate name. Had to wander around this entire place just to find you!" _

_The ghost watched as a figure in shadow stepped forward. The light dimmed down enough to show it was coming from a set of headlights on a strange ship. The ship was behind several trees, hovering just above the ground. The figure, once the light died down, was revealed to be wearing a set of strange green plate armor. HIs hair was orange, a strange eyepiece covered his right eye, and as he walked, he was smiling hard. _

"_What do you want?" The ghost groaned, "Can't a ghost sleep in his cave in peace?" _

"_This is your cave? Huh, could've mistaken it for all the other ones around here," The man laughed, "How about we get you out of the rain?" His hand, dripping with moisture, reached forward. The ghost immediately drew back and thrust the cape in front of him. _

"_Ah, don't like water then?" The man shrugged, reaching out to remove a glove, extending the dry hand into the cave mouth, "Some stories said ghosts hate water. There, how about now? I'm Ronin, by the way. Mind if I give you a lift…?" Ronin trailed off, as if asking for a name. _

"_L…." The ghost tried to bit his tongue; it was still habit at this point, "...Montgomery." _

"_Montgomery?" Ronin shook his head, "Sorry bud, I ain't calling you that. Way too long. How about Monty?" _

* * *

"Monty?" Ronin's voice cut through Monty's sleep.

Monty slowly groaned, lifting himself up from behind his chair. REX's viewscreen was completely covered in snow flurries beating against the glass. The sky was completely white, making the ground and horizon seemed to blend into one another indistinctly. The cockpit's heaters were going hard, furiously trying to provide warmth to the human inside. Ronin was crouched down overtop of the sleeping ghost.

"Ugh... " Monty groaned, looking around and snatching a rifle from the wall to help push himself up, "Been awhile since I slept last. Looks like I was out for awhile…" He yawned again, pushing his body upright and staggering up to his feet.

"Yeah, heh, I think the last time you did was to fool that security guard," Ronin's smile dropped, "Then you actually fall asleep."

"We got out of that jail and you don't have any room to complain about how we did," Monty hissed at him, "I was bored I guess, it's no big deal."

"I guess so," Ronin narrowed his eyes, "You sure that thing with the big guy-"

"You got that gear you said you'd make for me?" Monty asked, making Ronin sigh.

"Yeah, I did kid, it's in the back," Ronin hit a button on the wall, causing the door to the cargo area to slide shut, "Figured you'd want something that'll protect you. They usually make them for people going to really dangerous places, but well, you know."

Monty rolled his eyes and walked back to an open crate. Inside was a massive set of green coats and pants, clearly meant for arctic expeditions. The large hood in the front had what looked almost like a plastic screen that was attached inside it. With strings on the wrists and ankles to sinch them down, it was essentially a sealed outfit.

"It's green," Monty turned, "Funny. And how am I supposed to wear my cape with this?"

"You're not," Ronin chuckled, "Sorry kid, you're gonna have to go cape-less on this one."

Monty let out a string of obscenities, but obliged, dropping the new side cape Ronin had gotten him. He slid the outfit on by simply walking into it and then shifting his body until it was one right. It was a tad bit heavy, but it was better than walking outside in what to Ronin would be comparable to sweltering heat. Once he slid it on, he walked back into the cockpit and slid the rifle's strap over the suit's shoulder, quickly loading up the pockets with guns from various compartments.

"Think you're gonna need all of those out there?" Ronin himself had just finished sliding on a similar suit with two swords and whatever else he had on his person hidden from sight, "We're raiding a temple, not storming a palace."

"Can't hover with this weight on me," Monty shook his head, "And possessing clothes won't do much. Better safe than sorry," He popped a clip out from a pistol to check it, then shoved several filled clips down into the coat as well.

"The weight might be better if you weren't carrying enough firepower to take out the Emperor's entire guard," Ronin pointed out, walking back into the cargo hold and looking to the shell around the back, "You ready?"

Monty finished loading up his guns and turned to Ronin, "You got all the climbing tools?"

"Already ahead of you," Ronin patted his back, showing himself to be wearing a backpack, "Got all we can need in here. If we find something we'll wait till the storm backs out and then bring REX in to load it up. Chamille is waiting for us outside."

"Just remember," Monty frowned, "If the storm is bad enough we can't call REX."

"I know kid, I know," Ronin opened part of the shell, causing snow to come blasting in towards him. His voice switched from talking to a crackle inside of Monty's helmet, "Got comms in there, let's go see about this treasure and cape!"

The two stepped down from REX, revealing that Ronin had parked it underneath a sloped hill to try to shield it from the storm. It wasn't nearly large enough to fully cover the thing, but it was enough that it would give the ship protection from the brunt of the elements.

"Heh, you guys sure take awhile!" A female voice called out to the two as they stepped out, "Lucky we're not on any sort of schedule here."

Monty turned to see a woman that had to be Chamille. The woman was somewhat small and thin, her difference in size emphasized by standing beside Ronin. She wasn't wearing a coat, and instead across her body, she had white fur sticking up from around a simple set of purple tight pants and a shirt tied up with what looked to be a cross between a corset and sash. She wore a massive grin with fur encroaching on the sides of her face. When she saw Monty, she laughed.

"You all nice and cozy in there, ghosty boy?" Chamille chortled at his appearance, "You sure you going to be able to function out here with that?"

"I think I'm going to be just fine here," Monty groaned, "Better for me to be like this then dead."

"Lay off the kid, Chamille," Ronin shook his head, "I brought all the gear that you said we'd need. You have any idea where that cache might be?"

"Yeah, I finally got ahold of some documents that gave us a rough location," Chamille shook her head, "The reason nobody has ever found it is because it's probably just bathed in form."

"So, you can shapeshift other things than just yourself?" Monty crossed his arms.

"Yeah, what about it?" Chamille shrugged, "I'm pretty sure that I have enough power to get into the entrance. We just have to find it. Once we're there, all I gotta do is feel where the power is and then open it. You two go in and see what you find, and that'll be that."

"Wow, I'm so impressed that Ronin and I get to be apart of that brilliant plan. Let's walk right up to the front door, hope we can get in, and then let us do the work. You're really a tactical mind over here, Chamille," Monty scoffed, "How exactly are we going to get there in this freezing wasteland?"

Chamille rolled her eyes and slowly got down on all fours. Monty gave her a long look of boredom right before her body began to shift again. Her clothes seemed to morph and fit along with her as she changed into a white furred bear. She stamped the ground a few times with her paws, getting her balance it looked like, before turning back to them.

"I'm running," Her voice came from the bear's mouth uncannily, "You two get that thing."

Ronin whistled, showing he was sitting aboard a half tracked vehicle. The front were two massive skis, giving the thing a forward rake, while a massive windscreen protected the driver. The large black pad was big enough for both of them and their gear. The bear Chamille just smirked at them creepily before she kicked up snow and got in front of them.

"Come on, we got about six more hours of daylight, I would prefer we find it before we have to go in for the night. I doubt you two brought any of that sort of thing, didya?" Chamille laughed before leaping forward to run off into the snow.

"I always bring tents, plus this place is full of little places we could make camp otherwise," Ronin reached forward to take the controls, but Monty was faster.

"Hold my stuff," Monty ordered, right as his arctic gear crumpled. His body phased into and possessed the sled, causing the engine to roar to life and the handles to begin turning on their own. Ronin just grumbled and strapped the gear down to the sled as Monty caused the thing to gun forward.

The landscape around them truly was a wasteland. The ice sheets stretched as far as the eye could see, and even when the flurries started to subside to let them see the sky above them, there were no clouds in it. As the three made their way across the icy plains, only the occasional formation or hill would break up the monotony. Ronin had his compass out to see the direction they were moving in, while Monty was simply focusing on keeping the sled moving.

Chamille seemed never to tire as they ran. With Monty focused on driving, the boredom didn't set in until at least an hour of driving. Soon enough, without sights to see, he could only focus on just keeping the thing moving. After a second hour of driving them, Monty was beginning to wonder what Chamille was playing at. He revved the engine a few times, making Ronin reach down and grip the handles. Monty appeared back in his clothes behind Ronin like a phantom, appearing inside them and looking to Ronin with a groan.

"You drive," Monty yawned, "I'm bored."

"Still tired?" Ronin took a few moments to reorient himself, his comm coming in clearly, "Don't go sleeping right now, kid. I don't think I can drive this thing and keep you from falling off at the same time."

"I'll stay awake, Ronin," Monty rolled his eyes, "What do you take me for here?"

"A ghost that normally doesn't sleep and for some reason is acting like he's going to pass out," Ronin pointed out, "Chamille says we'll be there soon."

"Where'd you even meet this Chamille girl, anyways?" Monty scoffed, "If she just another girl that promised to get you rich if you did what she said? You know the last one left you tied up in an alley and took all your stuff."

"Hey, that's why I carry my wrist knife now and don't take drinks from a girl without testing them with powder first!" Ronin chuckled somewhat, "Keeps me on my toes too. Going out drinking has never been so interesting! Well, you know, except when you're there."

"Well every girl wants to know what it's like to kiss a ghost, apparently it's all something special now," Monty rolled his eyes, "Plus we have to know if the drink is water based or not first."

"The strongest drinks only have like, what, ten percent water?" Ronin laughed, "We both know that you can handle small amounts of water like I can poison by now!"

The bear Chamille growled in front of them, looking back at them. Ronin looked up to see the two had come up to what looked like a massive lake filled with broken chunks of ice floating across the surface. Wind blew across the chunks, causing snow to blow up into the air and come floating back down, only to get blown up once more. The water was near crystal clear underneath the ice. Just seeing it, Monty suppressed a shudder.

"Alright," Chamille called as she ran up alongside them, "All the reports of the temple say that it should be around here. Most of them say that this was the moat around it. Let's split up and circle the whole area to be sure!"

"Kay, We'll go right and you left then," Ronin shouted back, "How exactly are we gonna know when we see this temple if it's hidden somehow?"

"Just look for anything out of the ordinary!" Chamille called back, "Like I said, I'm pretty sure that it's cloaked in the power of form, so you wouldn't be able to see it. I have no idea what it looks like but I know for a fact it has to be here!"

"Wow, do you say that about everything?" Monty shouted, "If so then you'd be a really good public speaker!"

"Oh can it, ghost freak," Chamille spat back, "Just do you job!"

The bear turned on a dime, rapidly rushing off towards the left. Ronin steered the sled to the right and began working on circling the massive lake. The lake was depressed into the ground, giving a near ten foot vertical drop all the way down to the water level. As they drove along, he made certain to give them at least three feet distance from the edge.

"I'm gonna drive, you focus on looking, alright Monty?" Ronin asked over comm.

"Yeah, I got it," Monty waved his hand, "Let's just get going."

As the two drove around the lake, it became apparent that said lake was most likely an entrance to the Endless Sea. The distance to the other shore seemed constant, and the further that they went out, the less ice chunks there were. It was at least ten minutes before the sea was in sight, and even then another five before they reached it. The fact that Camille had taken them all the way to the sea only made Monty almost want to laugh..

Monty scanned the chunks. Ice chunk after ice chunk floated in the water, but nothing seemed strange. In fact, it looked exactly like a natural formation. That was no man made structure in sight, nothing seemed to even look like it'd been tampered with. It all looked like a frontier only researchers and crazy people would research. Thankfully, the snow had stopped, letting Monty get to actually see what was going on.

"See anything?!" Ronin called out, "We're almost to the sea, kid!"

"Nothing," Monty responded nonchalantly, "It just looks like a regular place. Nothing looks strange."

Soon, the sled indeed came to the edge of a cliff that dropped down into the sea. Ronin stopped long before that, opting to walk out towards the edge and look down. Monty got off shortly after, hands in his pockets as he walked. A loud roar brought their attention to the bear Chamille on the other side of the lake. A few moments after the roar, she shifted to a massive white hawk that flew across the lake to land on the sled behind them.

"Did you two see anything?" Chamille asked. Monty wondered how, given birds didn't lips.

"Nothing," Monty shook his head, "You sure it's out here?"

"I'm sure it is!" Chamille growled, "It's just hidden! You didn't see anything, at all?"

"Nah, if the kid says he didn't then he didn't," Ronin shook his head, "Monty here keeps a close eye on things for me."

"I'm sure he does," Chamille groaned, "Well we need to make another pass then!"

"Question," Monty raised a hand slightly, "This use to be a lake, or was it covered?"

"I… don't know," Chamille shook her head, "I just know it was on the coast, and when I analyzed all the documents this was the location they mostly shared."

"So it could be underwater then?" Ronin looked down to the lake, "Could've just sunk under the waves at that point. That water is too cold for REX, the systems will freeze up."

"No, if my ancestor built this place, why would he just let it sink?" Chamille shook her bird head, "No, we're making another lap!"

That was the line that spurred the group to drive around the lake four more times. Each time, Monty would take careful stock of his surroundings. He looked for anything odd: a piece of land that wasn't moving, a disturbance in the waves, a strange formation that could spell out a hidden entrance, but it seemed clean. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Every time they passed the lake, Chamille would shout at them to do it again. By the last lap, Ronin pointed out they wouldn't have enough gas to get back if they kept it up.

"It has to be here…" Chamille looked up to the sun that was beginning to descend the sky, "Ugh… at this rate we won't have sunlight to get home. It gets even colder at night."

"I mean they don't call it an arctic desert for nothing," Monty grimaced, "And I know deserts."

Chamille gave him a look and looked back over the lake. Ronin looked to Monty and nodded his head towards her. Monty gave Ronin a confused look, to which Ronin made a swipe with his hand and then rolled it. Monty rolled his own eyes dramatically and slowly stalked over to Chamille, sitting beside her and giving her a sideways glance.

"Look, if it's here then you're the one with the gift we need," Monty pointed out, "Can't you feel the form energy?"

"That's why I say that it's here…" Chamille sighed, "I can feel the energy all around us. It's incredibly faint, but I feel it. This has gotta be the place!"

"Well, it's not on the surface. That's a fact. That, or it's hidden so well we'll never find it," Monty slumped forward with his elbows on his knees, "Maybe see if it's somewhere else."

"Like what?" Chamille growled, "Underwater?"

"Maybe," Monty looked across the bay, "Look, let's imagine that the entrance to the sea out there wasn't there. This place is clearly a natural basin though. So, build your palace down there, open a hole to the sea, boom. Hide it. I mean, all the elemental masters were all together back then, right?"

"Now you're just mocking me," Chamille groaned, "What, are you saying there is a secret entrance around here?"

"That's literally what I'm saying," Monty thrust his arm out, "Look. Let's say you build the palace out there. And this is all speculation. Just see about maybe checking _this_ area first, _then_ we go waste gas trying to figure more stuff out."

Chamille blinked, then stood up and gave a dismissive wave of her hands and began to walk around. Ronin walked over and sat down beside him, stretching as he did so.

"Not a bad idea," Ronin smirked, "Isn't that how we built REX's garage?"

"Yeah, that's exactly how," Monty leaned back, "But I held the water back while you dropped it down in there for us."

"Knew it was a good idea to keep those construction guys under an IOU," Ronin grinned, "And having some of that Borg guy's engineers isn't a bad thing either."

A sound of electric discharge behind them filled the area. Chamille's arms were glowing lavender, and her eyes were flaring with it as well. A patch of ground in front of her was sparking, forming a neat rectangle as it spread out across the surface. Her figure tensed as she let out a grunt of exertion, causing the rectangle to solidify. After a few more moments, it disappeared entirely, leaving a dark stairwell that disappeared into the dark.

"Geezus the deadbeat was right!" Chamille laughed, "It's here! It's really here! Haha!"

"Nice, call the kid a name again and we'll have a problem though, "Ronin looked down the stairwell, "Alright, let's go, Monty."

Monty gave Chamille a sideways glance, then drew two pistols. Before the ground could speak, Monty fired off several rounds down the stairs, illuminating the walls with each flash. Chamille covered her ears while Ronin sighed. After ten seconds, Monty slid the weapons back into his pockets.

"Well if there was anything down there it, there isn't now," Monty waved a hand, "Let's go."

Chamille slowly stood up, seeing Monty and Ronin were already gone. Ronin produced headlights he and Monty dawned, tossing another one back to Chamille. The woman sighed and slid it on, making her way down with them.

The stairwell was perfectly hewn, with each step dry and oddly clean. The first few steps were made of ice, but after they descended to the rock below, the walls became rock as well. Monty estimated they had descended perhaps thirty feet when the steps flattened out and they proceeded perfectly horizontally. Their lights revealed a rather long corridor.

Once the three began to proceed, from the noises above them it was clear they were underneath the lake. Part of Monty was lighting up with fear realizing he was quite literally under potential death. It was a feeling that he wasn't sure how to take, and so he didn't say anything. Instead, he forced himself to just keep walking forward, and ignore the fact he was underneath an entire layer of impending doom.

Soon, the three came to a massive archway. Once the three stepped underneath it, it was clear they had indeed found their mark. The room beyond the arch was a massive chamber that was bathed in brilliant blue light. A hemispherical dome was above them, made of ice and showing the water of the inlet above them. Light filtered in through it, meaning the water layer couldn't have been too deep above them. The chamber had a single path forward that led to a large palace, a building of two steps that was colored in purples and lavenders accented by grays and blacks. The stepped roof arced out, casting a shadow over the stairs that led up into it.

"Dang, you'd think the master of ice would have called this place home…" Ronin muttered.

"Who knows, maybe they were into each other, now come on!" Chamille shifted into what looked like a massive snow leopard and leapt forward, "Let's see the goods!"

Ronin and Monty walked forward towards the palace more slowly as the leopard Chamille made her way up the stairs and into the large doors. The two were scanning the entire area for anything that could conceal a trap. They saw nothing; given the fact that Chamille was the only one that could get in, they both supposed it made sense. Still, as they walked up the stairs into the building, they were hesitant.

The palace was far smaller on the inside than the outside. Once they were inside, they saw that it was far more akin to an oversized house than a 'palace' as it'd been described. The main room had two curved stairwells that led up to a second floor, but that seemed to be the extent of it. Ronin could spot a kitchen and what looked like a study, already mumbling about grabbing some 'ancient texts' from it. Monty himself quickly located the bedroom and made his way up the stairs towards the bedroom. As soon as he opened it, his eyes widened.

"Alright, Ronin, I'm happy," Monty called out before disappearing into the room.

When Ronin made his way up the stairs, Monty had come back out. The massive cape in the photos seemed to have been true; the piece was longer than Monty was tall, meaning that a good foot of it dragged on the ground. That portion of the cape looked to be made of thicker material, and despite its use the entire cape seemed to be well kept. It showed signs of age in the way the color had faded in certain places, and the collar looked like it would need new stitches, but the material otherwise looked more than repairable.

"That's great, kid, glad you got what you were looking for," Ronin nodded his head, "Now, where's Chamille?"

"Right here!" Ronin and Monty turned to look to see Chamille standing in the doorway to the house. As she stood, she dangled what looked like a necklace on her hands. It was a silver colored beaded affair, with a jewel embedded into a large disc on the end. Chamille chuckled and slid it on over her head.

"I think I got the rest of it!" Chamille's voice echoed through the house, "Come on and see!"

Monty and Ronin nodded to one another, making their way down the stairs and towards a door that led off to their left. Chamille's voice echoed from the bottom of the stairwell, and the two descended it in turn. Once they were at the bottom, they entered a tiny room with a door with several strange locks on it. Large scratch marks were on the door as Chamille, currently a bear once again, was trying to yank the door open.

"Help me… get it open!" Chamille shouted.

Monty sighed and stepped out of his coat again, much to Ronin's annoyance as the bundle of fabric and guns collapsed. Monty stepped forward into the door past Chamille's claws, causing the entire thing to begin to glow green. The locks were clearly supposed to be driven by elemental power, but being inside meant he could tell all the mechanisms that needed to be activated directly. After nearly fifteen seconds of clicking, the door lurched open inwards, leaving a stunned Chamille and a grinning Ronin.

Inside the space the door protected was enough metals to make Ronin's eye widen. The room was small but densely packed, filled with what Ronin knew was likely pure silver. While not as valuable as gold, silver arguably had far more use. One wall was a collection of strangely shaped and ancient weapons hung on the wall as ornaments, while another wall was a massive bookshelf housing books that looked almost new preserved in the cold depths. The rest of the space was filled with silver, gold, and from the glint Ronin could guess was even potential platinum.

"Man…" Ronin whistled, "Glaad we decided to listen to you, Cammy," Ronin reached down to pick up a bar of silver, "Heck, just half of this could be worth a fortune. Monty, you want anything?"

Monty shook his head, back inside his coat and cape once more, "I don't really care about this sort of thing." He gestured back to the cape.

Ronin chuckled, "Alright, Chamille, how about you get into something nice and big so we can start hauling this stuff out?"

Ronin's body locked up as something was pressed deep into his neck. Chamille slowly removed the needle from Ronin's skin, throwing it on the ground and stepping on it. She looked to Ronin and slowly grinned as she drew an unseen dagger from her belt.

"Nah," Chamille shook her head, "You two are gonna wait down here a nice and long time while I take that ship of yours and get home."

Ronin smacked a hand over the injection point, feeling his vision starting to blur. He stayed on his feet, much to Chamille's shock. She lashed out, knocking into his chest and sending him down into a stack of silver bars. Ronin gasped, his reaction time having gone from fast to far too slow. He groaned out as he slowly rolled himself onto his side, trying to push himself upright.

Chamille had a pistol to his head the second Ronin fell over. Monty's eyes shone behind his suit, the gun pressing hard into her. His other hand drew one of his rifles, slowly moving to point it down at her leg.

"Great plan, except you forgot the fact that I'm a ghost," Monty hissed, "And I'm not above making you one either."

"Hah!" Chamille laughed, "I know you won't do that. Your buddy has been poisoned. Within five minutes he's going to die unless I give him the antidote. And you can't kill me, or else you'll never find out where I have it!"

Monty cocked both guns. Suddenly, Chamille's bravado drained out as she shook her head against the pistol. Monty pressed it even harder to hold her head still.

"I just said you can't kill me, idiot!" Chamille growled, "Ronin is going to die if you do! And I'm wearing armor made with deepstone, so you can't possess me and get me to t-"

The rifle fired. Chamille screamed and fell down, clutching her right leg. Monty stared at her coldly, then spun the butt of the rifle up to crack her upside the head. As she rolled across the floor, Monty fired his pistol twice, the first time hitting her left hand and the second adding a bullet to her right foot. As she wailed again, he reached out and blasted her head with air.

"Just sit there and watch me," Monty placed both guns back on his person and walked over and behind Ronin. As Ronin groaned on the floor, Monty stepped out of the coat again and reached down to heft the man up.

"...Nah…" Ronin grimaced, "D-Don't make me do that…"

"Shut up, we both know that it's the best way to handle this," Monty groaned, "Open up."

Ronin shook his head once, earning Monty's scorning gaze. After a few more seconds of his body going numb, Ronin nodded his head. Monty stepped forward and inside of Ronin, causing Ronin's body to seize up. He jerked about abnormally for several seconds, then came to a shuddering stop. When he did, Monty's voice came from Ronin's lips.

"Alright, have fun," Ronin was made to grin as Monty focused. The benefit of possession was that Monty had total control over the body. That included things that normally, the body couldn't do. Ronin doubled over as he began to hack and cough, his hands clenching into fists. He clutched his chest as Monty forced Ronin's body to divert blood flow in order to drive all poison up into his stomach. The sudden influx of foriegn material was enough to trigger a response, and Ronin successfully hacked up a massive burst of pink colored liquid onto the ground.

Monty stepped out of Ronin, who managed to barely roll away from landing in what he'd just hacked up. As he gave Monty a glance of disgust and exasperation, Monty just sighed and walked back over to Chamille. The girl had tried to crawl away from the group, leaving Monty to reach down and place the rifle to her head.

"I'm not the type that kills people needlessly," Monty casually stated, "But whether or not I have, that's up to you to decide. It's easy to do it to things that are pure evil, but people like you? You'd stay in my head at least a little bit. So keep that in your head for now."

Chamille huffed as Monty used his wind to forcibly drag her head up, "Now, you have two options. Either you run away right now, and trust me that won't end well, or you lay there and accept that you're now getting zero percent of this treasure. Got it, Chamille?"

"S-Screw you…" Chamille hissed at him, "S-Stupid ghost…"

"Thought you might say that," Monty turned to Ronin, "Ronin, toss me the rope. I'm gonna make sure she's tied too tight to use that elemental power of hers."

"Gotcha," Ronin hacked, reaching into his bag and throwing Monty several lines of red rope, "She gonna be okay?"

"I missed anything important," Montty looked down, "I'll tie it off to stop the bleeding. Now, you stand still Chamille, or I might tie it the wrong way and accidently make you bleed more. You hear me?"

Chamille nodded her head. Monty slowly reached down and began working her wrists, humming a little song as he did.

* * *

"Bad news, kid," Ronin shouted as he made his way back to the palace, "Managed to get REX out there before it rolled in, but the storm is back on. REX can't take off till it passes."

"What?" Monty, now without his protective coat, standing in the middle of the floor with his cape behind him gave Ronin a frown, "How long?"

"Probably all night at least," Ronin shook his head, "We'll stay down here for now. REX is already at full power just keeping herself warm. Don't wanna add to the load."

"Great," Monty looked around the place, "I get to spend all night trapped quite literally under a ceiling of second death. Maybe I can meet my buddies in the Cursed Realm later."

"Cold can kill me just as quickly as water can," Ronin shivered to prove his point, "It's one night in a hidden palace on the edge of Ninjago, I'm sure you'll handle it."

Monty waved a hand at Ronin, making the man chuckle. Ronin made his way through the home until he was in the study they'd seen earlier. He traced the bookshelves, reaching up and taking down books to flip through them. He began sorting them by quality, those that were too far gone going in one pile and ones he could resell in another.

While Ronin worked, Monty made his way into the study. He took a seat in a massive chair, finding he could quite truly sit on top of the cape. He smiled at the thought and slowly drew the material up and over his arm as he watched it flow. He took a marker out from his belt and began to make small marks on spots that he'd go and fix up later as well. Even with age, however, the cape was easily going at the front of his wardrobe.

"You didn't need to shoot her, you know," Ronin spoke casually as he sorted, "We both know that I have a resistance to poison."

"She poisoned you and tried to leave us both for dead," Monty shrugged, "Like I said, I didn't hit anything vital, she'll be walking again in a few months."

Ronin frowned, "Kid, you could easily have just shot off her deepstone armor and then possessed her instead. Seems like you went pretty far with that whole little lesson thing."

"If someone is going to double cross us, I'm going to make them pay," Monty laid back with his hands on his head, "You'd do the same."

"Yeah, but I also wouldn't have popped her without seeing if she had the antidote on her. You just wanted to drop her," Ronin shook his head, "It's bad for business to do that. If you get a reputation for this sort of thing…"

"It's one girl on one mission," Monty shot back, "I'm not planning on killing anyone."

"Yeah, I guess I know that," Ronin paused, his back still turned to Monty as he sorted, "Kid, is this about the Overlord?"

"What makes you think that?" Monty rolled his eyes.

"Well you've watched the shop without your usual complaints," Ronin shrugged, "And you were sleeping the entire way here. Now you went and shot someone just straight up like that. Twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern. That's what my dad used to say."

"One of these days I'm going to actually find your dad and we'll have a good talk about what he 'used to say' all the time," Monty scoffed, "What's this about?"

Ronin paused in his sorting. He left the half empty book shelf and made his way over to a nearby chair beside Monty's seat. He dragged the chair to sit in front of Monty, at which point he sat down and leaned forward.

"Kid, listen, I never asked about your past and you never really ask about mine. That's how we roll, after all," Ronin frowned again, "The only reason I would ever ask is if it's gonna affect business. You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but I want to know: do you have some connection to what went down on that Dark Island?"

Monty didn't respond. Ronin waited patiently for him to, refusing to take his eyes off Monty. Monty kept his eye contact with Ronin for nearly thirty seconds of silence. The entire home was deathly quiet aside from Ronin's faint breathing, making focusing on anything else near impossible. Monty gave Ronin a long look before he finally looked to the side.

"Yeah, I did," Monty groaned, "Way more than I think anyone thinks. All those ninja thought I was just there because I was bored. That's how I'm keeping it with them. They don't need to know the truth."

"Alright, and my second question is a little easier to answer: are you okay?" Ronin quietly quierred.

Monty once more went silent. Again, the house seemed to perpetuate the silence. There was nothing to stop them, not the sound of appliances outside, not the talk of others inside the room, nothing. There was nothing for Monty to hear except his own thoughts, and likewise nothing for Ronin to focus on other than the ghost sitting in the chair of a long gone icon.

"...I'm always fine," Monty waved his hand, "Hard to feel things when your body can't even feel things anymore."

"Kid, I know when you're lying to me, and right now you're lying," Ronin gestured to the hand, "You always make some sort of motion when you lie."

Monty silently cursed his hand, "Fine. I'm not fine. I've never been fine, Ronin. I'm _dead_. I'm quite literally never 'fine' because I can't even be 'fine' anymore. I can't feel anything unless I quite literally force my body to. I'm constantly in a state of just literally being _here_ now. So there, that's it."

Ronin stared at Monty, then he stood up. He made his way back over to the shelf once again, working to start taking down books. Monty perked up slightly and leaned in.

"Alright," Ronin shrugged, "I just wanted to ask."

"What?" Monty shook his head, "No, you don't get to do that. You can't just ask me something like that and then just, stop."

"We don't talk about each other's past. I just needed to know if what happened over there was important. I'll make sure that I'm aware of that next time we go on a mission," Ronin flipped through a book, tossing the book off to the discard pile, "That's it."

"So you were just manipulating me?" Monty hollowly chuckled, "Get a little information out of me so you can piece it together on your own?"

"Don't put words in my mouth," Ronin turned back to Monty, "I just need to know so I let you cool off a bit before our next mission. That's it. If that's manipulation then I guess I did."

Monty stood up, "Cool off? Wow, I'm sorry I got angry that some random woman tried to kill you in front of me. I'll make sure that next time I let you die."

"That's exactly what I mean, right there!" Ronin crossed his arms, "You're blowing everything way out of proportion here. Kid, you just need to-"

"I don't need to do anything, I reacted completely _appropriately_ to that situation, you're the one trying to take this way out of whack!" Monty spat, "And don't call me kid like that'll somehow make it better!"

"Sit down, Monty," Ronin ordered, "You're gonna say something you don't want to."

Monty curled his hands into fists. From them, massive columns of air began to wisp around him, lifting his body up into the sky. The cape billowed out harshly, smacking around at the chair as he lifted upwards. Ronin just kept his arms crossed at him as the room began to shake. The books began to flap open and then be roughly tossed aside. The chair pushed back as he continued to release his powers into the room.

When Monty came back down, his head was hung. The cape had gotten tilted on his shoulder, and when he tried to fix it he found that it was caught on something. He reached up and violently undid the knot and threw it aside, refusing to touch it any further.

"You done now?" Ronin asked calmly. Monty remained silent.

Ronin sighed and stepped forward. He reached out, placing his hands onto Monty's shoulder to press him down. Monty didn't move. Ronin gripped Monty for a few seconds, then he groaned.

"Don't make fun of this later," Ronin muttered. Before Monty could react, Ronin pulled him into a hug. Monty's head jerked up and his eyes narrowed as Ronin hugged him, his grip firm but gentle. He held Monty for a few seconds, not letting him go. Monty let his body stay solid enough for Ronin to do so.

"Kid, I worry about you, okay?" Ronin sighed, "Some messed up stuff happened to you in your past, I think we can see that by looking in a mirror. I know what that's like. It's easy to slide right into feeling sorry for yourself, hating yourself and all. You only sleep when you're upset. You went off on Chamille like that. I just want to know that my buddy is okay, alright?"

Monty remained silent. His head slowly lowered to stare at Ronin's shoulders. Ronin let him go, leaving Monty with his arms slightly outstretched to hug back. Monty quickly placed his hands at his sides again. Ronin gave Monty a small smile, then turned around to go back to the shelves.

"You realize that if you asked, at this point I'd pretty much have to tell you, right?" Monty spoke casually, his arms crossed, "You know me too well at this point. All I'd have to do is pop some Chi out and then you'd figure it all out." He extended his hand, "Just one look and I'm sure a smart guy like you could figure it all out."

A set of gloved hands pushed Monty's hand down. Monty looked to Ronin curiously as Ronin held Monty's forearm.. Ronin just gave him a cocky grin back.

"Nah," Ronin shook his head, "After all, I ain't even showed you mine yet."

Monty opened his mouth. There were a lot of things he wanted to say to that. There was only one person in Ninjago that he'd ever trust something like this to. One person that he'd actually listen to. And he was denying it again. He'd never asked. He eyed Ronin curiously, then scoffed and shrugged.

"Fine, I'll show you mine the day you finally get the courage to show me yours," Monty rolled his eyes, "I still think it's a bug."

"Well you'll have to just keep thinking on it," Ronin grinned, "Now, come and help me with these books."

No sooner had Monty stepped forward to start sorting did a massive explosion rip through the cavern. Ronin and Monty both immediately turned to their feet and rushed out of the study, Ronin drawing a sword and Monty two revolvers. The two stopped just outside of the entrance, rapidly looking around. Nothing was on fire or had holes from it. With that ruled out, they both rushed their way to the corridor out of the chamber.

As soon as they began to ascend the stairs, it became apparent that the explosion had come from outside. Halfway up the stairs they began to smell smoke. Ronin in particular rushed up even faster than the ghost floating up the stairs. As the two reached the gray-tinted exit, a deep black arid plume of smoke rose into the sky.

Once the two were outside, Ronin shouted in rage. REX's entire left engine was completely gone, burst into pieces scattered all about the area. In addition to that, the secondary turbines on the back were completely ruined, half exploded and half melted. A hole on the side of REX's cargo area had a woman in neon green clothes with matching hair dragging out silver bars.

A series of well aimed shots caused the woman to fall backwards. She fell to the ground with a shout, only to pat her body down and find there were no wounds. Instead, the ground in front of her burst up as the snow was shot by Monty again. She dropped her loot and rapidly scrambled backwards.

"Cham, they heard us!" The woman shouted into a walkie talkie she produced from her hip, "Tell Adam to start the chopper!"

"Did you blow up my ship?!" Ronin shouted, "YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS! LITERALLY! PAY UP!"

"I don't think so!" The woman put her hands together, "Back off!"

The woman opened her mouth, causing a massive green cloud to suddenly burst out in front of her. The cloud covered a massive area of the body, becoming thick enough she was lost in it. As soon as Ronin smelled it, he thrust a hand over his face, "Crap, Monty, that ain't good!"

Monty, undaunted, raised his hand and blasted the cloud with wind, dispelling it. The woman was gone. Instead, a massive yellow and green choper with what looked like a bomb dropping system on the back underneath the main tail rotor flew overhead. On either side of the copter was a massive green bubble glass, one of which opened. The woman climbed up a chain as they flew back, rolling inside and causing it to shut.

"Nice going, Tox!" Chamille laughed in the cockpit, opening the glass to shout down to the two, "Have fun stuck in that stupid palace!"

Monty let out a few rounds of fire, causing Chamille to yelp and duck as the cockpit closed up. The copter soon flew off into the distance, being lost in the gray of the storm. Ronin kicked the ground and spat as he raced after them for a few steps, then stopped himself realizing the futility in it.

"Of course she had a partner…" Ronin spat, "Must have been the Master of Poison. Great. Just great!" He threw his hand up in the air as he walked forward to inspect REX's engine, "Yeah, we ain't salvaging this…. Screw those two!" Ronin kicked the engine, only marginally groaning as the pain shot into him from it.

"So, what, we're stuck here?" Monty looked down, "Should've brought more ammo."

"Nah… that would be letting them get away with this," Ronin hissed, "We're gonna make our way back to Ninjago, and when we do… well, if we ever see them again, we're gonna make them pay."

"So that means…?" Monty blinked, "...No."

"Yep," Ronin forced a smile, "We're going on an adventure."

* * *

Chen slowly hummed to himself as he sat in his chair. The Tournament of Elements was proceeding just as planned. He'd gotten Zane, all of the ninja, and managed to get even some of the more surly competitors to come on the guise of paying them! It was almost too easy! If any of them actually knew what was going on…. Well, they would soon enough!

"Chen."

Chen turned around in his seat, then his lips curled into a mad smile, "Monty! My good friend on the other side! What brings you here today? If it's about the deepstone swords, I had to make it at least fair-"

"Nah, I can use my guns so I don't care," Monty narrowed his eyes, "I want you to change the bracket."

"Oh?" Chen's smile only grew, "And, pray tell, what is wrong with the matches I have set up?"

"There are two fighters that I need to take out before this tournament is over," Monty crossed his arms, "Chamille and Tox. I want to fight Tox first, then fight Chamille."

"Hmm… that's a tall order right there! Yes, yes, I'd have to change the entire side for that!" Chen giggled, "Now, what is in it for me, ghosty one?"

"You want your matches to be 'fun' right?" Monty sighed,, "I got beef with those two. Got me stuck in the Frozen Wastes while all that dumb Golden Master stuff went downl. But see, we could never track them down. And, well... " Monty raised his hand, forming a sphere of air in it, "Taking out Tox will put a lot of fear into Chamille. I'm _sure_ you can see where that would lead, yes?"

"Hmm… oh yes, I think I see exactly what you mean!" Chen stood up, "Alright, Monty, I'll humor your little request. But don't come crying to me if it goes badly!"

"If I did start crying, then I'd have a lot more to worry about than my next fight," Monty shook his head, "I'll make sure this tournament is interesting for you."

"Yes, yes, good!" Chen laughed, "Now, hurry on back to your room before anybody suspects us! Go on, go on! Or else those swords will be the least of your handicaps!"

Monty shrugged, walking forward and stepping through the doors. As soon as he was gone, Chen walked over to his chair and sat down. Once he was certain the ghost was gone, he slowly fished for a piece of paper and wrote down the changes.

"I'm certain this will be most interesting…" Chen grinned. As he dropped his paper, the words '_Monty X Morro'_ were scribbled on the page, "Most interesting indeed…"

* * *

Greetings Ninjaverse Readers!

I wanted to pop on to say that this will be the last Universal Deviation Chapter during the Ninjaverse hiatus. I have more written, but they're for characters you haven't met yet. Thus, the hiatus will continue.

I am still posting Autobiography of a Legend, and Ninjaverse is on schedule to resume before the end of the month. I am currently working on editing Chapter 24. Chapters 17-32 have been written, but due to needing to massively rework some story elements, the hiatus extended a bit further than initially intended. However, once I begin posting once more, there will be no more breaks until the end of 32!

Thank you to all my readers, and Ninja-go!


	5. Mage - Revelations

A massive red and yellow temple stood against the massive basin around it. The structure sat upon a small island in the midst of a boiling lake, taking up nearly all of the space the landmass had to offer. The temple appeared as though structures had been built off of a central rounded main area, with large bridges extending from various heights out to large towers spaced seemingly at random around the structure. There were several small entrances into the main section, but overall, it appeared that there was one massive slope leading into the largest entrance. There was no bridge across the lake, and thus, there was nothing more to do than look without a way to cross.

Time, it seemed, had not been kind to the temple. Despite the shape being readily apparent, visualizing what it once looked like was somewhat difficult. The waters around it meant there were little plants clinging to the building, but the colors in the stone had faded, and what stones remained were weather worn and crumbling in several places. One tower had clearly fallen at some point, its bricks spilling into the boiling waters around it. The structure sat alone amidst itself, the area barren and void.

Atop the hill of the basin, a massive beast stepped forward. The dragon born first over all others, the Firstbourne, crested the basin. Her presence filled the area, her mass dominating the slopes. Upon her back rode a child, one wearing robes of gold. The beast stopped at the top of the basin, slowly settling down so she could rest.

"You think dad is waiting for us there, Firsty?" Lloyd asked as he slowly dismounted the dragon's massive back. The large dragon huffed at him and looked towards the structure, letting out a long little growl as she did so.

"I bet you're not taking me over there again, aren't you?" Lloyd asked the dragon. She let out a long growl and took a pace backwards from it, a look of disgust in her eyes. Lloyd, confused, blinked once before looking down towards the temple, "Well… alright then!"

Lloyd looked down to the slope, then brought his hands together. His concentration hardened as his eyes began to glow copper. Slowly, his form levitated from the ground, moving him directly away from the Firstbourne. His body floated through the air, freed of gravity's chains, carrying him towards the temple. The distance from him to the sloping ground grew as he continued horizontally. After thirty seconds, he let out a hard huff and his arms shook, trying to stay within concentration.

The effort failed, and gravity once more took hold of him. Lloyd yelped and thrust his hands down, firing a stream of wind from his feet. The action slowed his descent, giving him time to roll when he hit the ground. After several tumbles, his eyes went light blue, firing out ice from his hands. A makeshift ramp of sorts froze in front of him, carrying his form up and into the air. He thrust his hands out to force him to fly straight, seeing that the boiling lake was coming straight for him. Thinking fast, he froze the water under him, forming a bridge to the island. He slid across the bridge, landing with a hard slide against the dirt on the island.

"Phtfu!" Lloyd spat out dirt as he slowly stood up, trying to rub the dirt away from his uniform, "I'm okay! Totally okay!" He looked back at his ice, slowly blushing and reaching out to dispel it. Upon seeing the Firstbourne starring at him from now a far away distance, he shook his head, "I'm still learning gravity!"

Turning away from a disdainful glare from his dragon, Lloyd made his way forward towards the temple. He'd landed off to the right of the main entrance. Seeing the state of the building, he decided against using powers to get inside. Instead, he dusted his knees off and began walking forward towards the structure. The shadows cast by the aging structure loomed over him, blocking out the light of the setting sun. The yellow light bathed the structure, only revealing more of its cracks, and more of its age.

"Why did Firstbourne bring me here?" Lloyd muttered as he slowly ascended the stairs, "I mean, dad said that if we got separated we should meet up at a tribe… this is nowhere…"

Lloyd reached a set of two massive wooden doors. Time had torn one from its hinges, leaving it embedded partially in the rocks below. The other was slightly ajar, revealing a strange flickering light from inside. Lloyd, curious, slowly stepped forward, sliding his body through the open door. The light from inside shone from the end of a darkly lit hallway, framing a rectangular entrance at the other end. Slowly, Lloyd made his way to the light. As he approached it, he could see the hallway was sculpted with a high ceiling, with arches that reached up and converged into a strange web-like design at the top. The walls had indents with large bowls atop pedestals in each one. Several of them had been tipped over or cracked.

The boy emerged into the light. The light came from a massive room, one that at first felt barren and empty. All around, doors led off into darkness of various directions, likely out to the towers that Lloyd had seen outside. The light came from a massive pit in the middle of the room filled with firewood currently burning. The smoke rose up to a strange dark hole in the ceiling. The light illuminated several strange paintings along the walls, each one preserved despite the age of the stone around it.

A man sat beside the fire. As Lloyd approached him, he could make out what he was wearing. The man had on a strange headdress fashioned to look like a dragon's skull, framed with a mixture of deep red and yellow highlights around it. His clothes was a loose fitting yellow shirt with large strands of red fabric draped around his shoulders and then tied at the waist with a piece of glistening rope. He wore a large black cloak loosely around his shoulders. His pants were similarly colored, and following them revealed he was wearing tough looking sandals. His features betrayed him of middle age, with deep blue eyes and an angular nose. He wore a massive smile on his face that Lloyd saw when the man looked up to him.

"Ah!" The man grinned, "Another adventurer? Come, come! Sit, sit. It's rather cold outside isn't it? A fire will warm you right up!"

"Huh?" Lloyd blinked, "But, it's warm outside. I mean the fire is nice, thank you!" He slowly walked up to the fire, sitting down beside the man.

"Oh, I meant this place, the entire area feels cold and desolate, yes?" The man giggled, "Such a sad place to be. What brings a young child like you to these places? You're far from any tribe, I can tell you that much."

"My dragon brought me here," Lloyd shrugged, " I don't know why though. I was on my way to the Form Tribe when we got hit by a storm. And, well, my dad and I got separated. So I guess I'm going to wait here until he finds me."

"Dragon, boy?" The man's eyes widened, "Wait, no! No no no, you can't be him! Forgive me if I sound rude, but, could you perhaps be the boy of legend, the one who rides the Firstbourne, master of all dragons, Lloyd Garmadon..?"

"Uh, yeah actually!" Lloyd beamed, sticking his hand out to the man, "I'm Lloyd, uh… well you kinda said what I am already!"

The man gasped, reaching out and shaking his hand. The strength was enough that Lloyd was jerked up and down before he managed to lock his shoulder. When the man let go, he continued to stare at Lloyd in awe, taking in the sight of him. After a good number of seconds of awkward starring on Lloyd's part, the man stood up, his cloak flourishing out behind him.

"I'm so happy to meet you! Ah yes, this is one of the happiest days of my life!" The man beamed, "You've become a legend around the tribes! The young boy in robes of gold, flying in on the beast of myth to learn elements from the _strongest_ of masters! I can't believe it, I truly can't believe this! You're… you've graced me with your presence!"

"Heh, I'm not that special," Lloyd rubbed his neck, "I'm just doing what I need to stop the world from Chen, you know?"

"Ah yes… Chen…" The man sighed, "Yes, he truly is making a big mess of things, isn't he?"

"Yeah, rumor has it he knows every elemental power and he's trying to send out the Call of Dragons to destroy all the tribes!" Lloyd frowned, "So I'm learning how to use all the powers too! I'll stop him at his own game."

"Ah, you clearly hold some resentment for this Chen…" The man's expression fell, "I wonder what he is doing. My name is Ren, so you know. Chen used to be my friend."

"...What?" Lloyd cocked his head, "You mean, the Chen that's going around and… you know?"

"Yes… he was a man of honor, once," Ren sighed, "Very honorable! Very strong. Man of great power and wisdom! The cruelty of this world twisted him. It took my friend from me. I wish I could do something for him… but I am unable to. You wish to defeat him then, yes?"

"Yeah," Lloyd pulled his fists up, "Most of the world doesn't believe it yet, but he's pushing us all towards something dangerous. He knows every element and I have to show him up! Plus, you know, learning elements is good for me. I'm supposed to be the only one that can!"

"This world is a mysterious one!" Ren sighed, "A strange one, too. It masks the true faces of all in it! Like this temple," He waved his hand around, "I can here to explore this place! To learn more about it. Do you know where you are, boy?"

"Uhm… no, actually," Lloyd rubbed his head, fingers brushing through his hair, "Firstbourne just, kinda dropped me off here."

Rhen cocked his head, "What an odd beastie. Well then, allow me to welcome you! You're in the ruins of the Amber Tribe!"

"The what?" Lloyd blinked, "There's no Amber Tribe, what do you mean?"

"You've never heard the legend of the Amber Tribe?" Ren stepped towards Lloyd, "Never? Not once?! The tragedy that befell these people, so many hundreds of years ago?!"

"I, uh, no?" Lloyd almost felt like apologizing, "I mean, I've never heard of the Amber Tribe before. I mean… my dad never told me about them growing up?"

"Seriously?" Ren gasped, "Then… would you perhaps grant me the honor then, Lloyd, of teaching you the legend of the Amber Tribe? I promise I know everything about it! Down to the sssmmmaaallleessttt of details!"

"Uhm… sure?" Lloyd crossed his legs and leaned forward, "I mean, I should get to know everything about this world, right?"

"Exactly!" Ren grinned, "SKYLAR! LIGHTS!"

Suddenly, the room was illuminated by firelight. Previously unseen slots in the floor retracted, causing the light of the fire in the pit to fill the room from smaller fires in the floor. Lloyd snapped his head around as the room was fully illuminated, allowing him to see every single detail of the painting around him. Ren himself reached down to take a burning log from the pit, granting him a makeshift torch.

"Come Lloyd, come!" Ren giggled, "Come, listen to the tale of the Tribe that never came to be. Listen to the legend, of the Amber Tribe…" Ren paused, "SKYLAR!"

From one of the many dark hallways, a girl rushed forward. From the look of her, she was perhaps only a year or two older than Lloyd was. She had beautiful flaming red hair that was tied off in braids down her back. She wore a set of robes similar in outfit to Ren, with the notable exception being the massive sword she had strapped to her back. As she laid eyes on Lloyd, those eyes narrowed and she scowled.

"Lloyd, this is my daughter, Skylar! Skylar, Lloyd and Lloyd, Skylar!" Ren waved his torch back and forth to them and turned towards the wall, "Be nice to him, Skylar! He is the _legendary_ grandson of the First Elemental Master!"

Skylar said nothing. Instead, she turned back to Lloyd and walked around him, making her way to the entrance Lloyd had come in from. She stood there in front of it, keeping a harsh eye on Lloyd. Lloyd tried to smile at her and gave her a cheerful expression, but she didn't budge.

"The tale of the Amber Tribe begins with the First Elemental Master," Ren moved in front of Lloyd, the torchlight casting his features in harsh lights and shadows, "You know the tale of them, yes, yes?"

"Yeah!" Lloyd nodded, "In the beginning, the First Elemental Master was born of the dark and light of this world. Upon seeing how the world was unfit for life, he made a pact with a young dragon hatchling called the Firstbourne to one day make the world right for people just like him. The two grew up together until they were strong enough to defeat the evils of the land, and with their combined power, they harnessed the magic of this world to transform the world into what he now live on today."

"Correct! Correct in all senses!" Ren nodded, "The First Elemental Master absorbed the magic in this world and used it to give the Firstbourne the power she needed to transform the world. With that magic, she separated it into the powers of nature, and the two created the two species of this world in their images."

Ren danced over to a massive painting. The drawings depicted a man surrounded by gold but painted in shadow standing underneath the massive face of the Firstbourne. Around them, several beams of the gold branched out, depicting colored eggs at the end of each of them. Around each egg, small dotted figures converged around them.

"The First Elemental Master created us humans in the image of what he believed was the face of all nature in this world. To protect them, the Firstbourne separated that magic into the form that the natural world took around them and birthed a dragon of each of those forms," Ren raised his torch to each egg, "These forms are the very tribes you know today. Fire, ice, lightning, earth, water, metal, mind…"

"Nature, time, wind, form, speed, light, shadow, smoke, poison, gravity…" Lloyd continued.

"Sound… and Amber," Ren let his torch drift to the smallest of the eggs, "The element of adaptation. The evolution of the world, responding to the forces it could not control. An element to embody the adaption of the world itself!" Ren brought a hand over his chest, "The youngest of the dragons… and the first to meet its end."

Ren drifted over to another painting. This one showed a series of bubbling lakes, much like the one they were in the middle of now, each inside of basins. Each had islands within them that were filled with people and buildings of the same coloration of the temple they stood in. Above them all, a small Amber dragon looked to be chasing the clouds above the groups.

"The Amber Dragon took those imbued with its element to this very place. Nobody knows why it chose a place so isolated from the world, on lakes in which none could reach them," Ren lowered his head, "The young Amber Tribe was isolated from the world even as the other tribes grew and prospered. They remained on their island within the boiling lakes, unable to expand, unable to thrive. That was… until the day a traveler came to their islands.

"The traveler held the power of fire within her hands, and with the flame inside of her, no scald the waters could give her would stop her. That traveler made her way into the tribe, and in a way, this was the single event that sealed the Amber Tribe's fate," Ren drifted his torch to the only figure painted in red in the middle of the tribe, "For when she touched the hand of their leader in greeting, the leader was consumed in flames!"

The fire in the pit behind them suddenly flared up, becoming a pillar that shot up into the room. Lloyd yelped in shock and turned around, eyes going red as he pushed the flames down. As he did, Ren frowned at him.

"No, no no, you're ruining the tale!" Ren reached out and swatted one of Lloyd's hands, "The flames are fine, they cannot hurt you here! Listen to the story, listen!"

"The Amber Tribe's power was one unlike any other: they could mimic the powers of any they could touch," Ren drew Lloyd's hand towards him, "A single itsy-bitsy touch, and they could use the powers of the one they touched… but only that of the one they touched…" Ren looked down, "The power and mastery over the element was dependent upon the one who wielded it. You practice to master your abilities, yes?" Ren grinned, "If you could produce only a single flame, and I was of the Amber Tribe, I could produce only a single flame as well."

Ren let go of Lloyd with a push, causing Lloyd to spin. Ren caught Lloyd's shoulders and guided him towards the next painting, this one of far less intelligible. Two strange symbols, both deep green and black, were mingled between one another, and in the border from where they touched a sliver of amber was painted. At the bottom of the symbols, a flame seemed to be starting to consume the painting from below, like cloth held over an open fire.

"The Amber Tribe, freed from their isolation, grew out into the world faster than any other. With the ability to mimic any power they saw, they grew to a civilization that the tribes could never hope to keep up with!" Ren threw his arms out, "The very temple we stand in now was the sight that all members of the Tribe used to greet the outsiders! The tribes now are so stuffy, keeping to themselves and trading only when needed. The Amber Tribe, however, they were as apart of the world as the world was of them…"

"Then, their fall began," Ren's smile fell to a deep frown, and Lloyd felt a cold breeze blow over his neck, "A member of the Earth Tribe, so sad, was mistaken for a thief sneaking into the Wind Tribe. His unfortunate death would send the two tribes into conflict. The Earth Tribe struck first!" Ren smacked the painting, and the floor rumbled, "But the power of wind is not to be underestimated. The strong and powerful earth was no match to the overwhelming speed of the wind! And soon, the Earth Tribe was near their limit. Many men died to defend their borders, but the Wind Tribe would not back down!"

"Then… a gambit," Ren let a finger trace the yellow line on the painting, "A wandering warrior, a member of the Amber Tribe seeking glory, was hired to infiltrate the Wind Tribe. With a change of clothes and a mission in hand, the man walked past all guards, all safeties, and soon had captured the leader of the Wind Tribe herself…" Ren sighed, "And thus, the Earth Tribe won the day, but at a cost none could ever have seen coming…"

Ren slid his hand along the symbols and moved to a painting of the very temple they stood in. The painting was the least preserved of all of them. The painted figures were clearly meant to be citizens carrying several items into the temple. Some carried bricks, others books, and others items Lloyd did not know. Ren's tone became quiet.

"The Amber Tribe entered an age of prosperity. Their soldiers became the most in demand aspect of their society. Men and women, able to master whatever they are shown? It was a power that was feared throughout the land. They built temples and grand cities, they grew to have their influence across the world! The Amber Dragon rejoiced, seeing its people had grown as intended. But, as they grew, a horror began to brew within the world…" Ren lowered his torch.

"Fear prospered in ways that none could ever have imagined. What if a spy, an enemy, was among us at any time?" Ren shook his head, "They have our powers, could they truly be one of us? What if they were in deep? What if the leaders were meeting with them? What if a child was born of an Amber member without knowing? The terror of this power spread through the land, and with it, the leaders came to meet."

"The tribe is too powerful!" Ren shouted, his voice booming in the hall, "They will swallow us whole! They'll destroy our way of life! They have grown so fast, when will their growth come to bury us underneath it?" Ren ran his hand in the air, "They must be checked, must be stopped!"

"But… why?" Lloyd blinked, "They… they were just living and, doing what they had to?"

"Oh young boy, people do not think with the naivety of children," Ren lowered his head, "They fear what they have being stolen, and what can be done for it. For you see, a piece of territory along the border of the Wind Tribe was given to the wandering warrior for his efforts in that war long ago. His family moved in, then his family's families, and soon they grew to turn the area into an Amber Tribe hub in the world. This fear and anger came to rest within a young appointed leader of the Wind Tribe, and in his hatred, he made the choice: take back the land that was taken from them so long ago!"

"... They failed," Ren stated solemnly, "The overwhelming might and speed of the Amber Tribe was far more than any of them could have ever thought of! And when the demands of peace were given to the Wind Tribe, the world was broken by fear. The demands would cripple the Wind Tribe for their actions. They demanded the leader be removed, even if he had been ordained by the dragon. And thus… the world made its move."

Ren moved over to the last painting. It was one that had hardly been finished, one that barely had anything painted. It appeared to show soldiers marching out to battle, a proud formation marching down from the cities. The fact it was unfinished sent a cold dread into Lloyd as Ren began to finish his tale.

"A plan was made. A lie was fed to the Amber Tribe, a lie that they fell for without a single moment of thought!" Ren looked down, "The soldiers marched out of the cities to intercept an army of the Wind Tribe heading for them. They mobilized their forces, intending to show their strength. But when they arrived, it was not just the Wind Tribe. All of the tribes had sent their men to fight. A force of thousands to a force of hundreds was on the field that day. It was less than an hour before every last soldier of the Amber Tribe was routed and put to the blade."

"What?" Lloyd gulped, "But… but, why? Why would they do that?"

"It does not end there, young Lloyd, in fact it is even worse," Ren growled, the flames in the room dimming until his torch was the primary source of light, "Those men on the battlefield, they were not all. While the slaughter happened, the killings turned into a massacre. The tribes fell upon the Amber Tribe's cities and killed all. Man, woman, child and baby in the blankts, all were put to death," Ren slid his hand over the wall, "Fear consumed the world, and the world decided to take action. The Amber Dragon was dragged from its cave and strung up for proof that they would no longer exist. In one night, thousands were killed."

"T-That's…" Lloyd felt sick to his gut, "...N-No, you can't be telling the truth. How, how would I not know of this?"

"That is a simple answer, young Lloyd. The Firstbourne, upon seeing the horrors that her children had allowed happened, decided to retreat from this world. She flew to the edge of the world where none could reach, and with her, she took the two young children of the First Elemental Master. She took them, and there, she rested, allowing the years to go by, allowing the world to change, without so much as a single look back."

"But… but that means…" Lloyd gulped, "T-The First Elemental Master said that, I wasn't to be shown to the world until they had need of me… was… was that…?"

"Oh yes, boy, your life is tied to that of the Amber Tribe!" Ren's smile began to return, "Your life in isolation was due to the sins of the world? You were never to see the evils that had been committed. It was the same reason that the brothers stayed from it themselves; they could not allow for themselves to expose you to the world until you were ready."

Lloyd continued to feel sick. He felt hazy as well. This couldn't be true. None of this could be true. Ren had to be lying, he had to be telling him some made up story using the paintings on the walls, but… but they were inside a temple. In an island in the middle of a boiling lake. The Firstbourne had taken him here, hadn't she? Was… was that because…?

"Of course, humans often miss the obvious," The lights in the room began to rekindle as Ren loomed over Lloyd, "A member of each tribe felt horrified at the acts they were to commit. They found an injured girl among the corpses, one that was just barely clinging to life. They knew they could not hide her, for if she were found, her life was forfeit. And thus, they healed her and sealed her away. With their powers combined, they sealed her away for as long as their powers would allow, praying she would emerge in a time where the tribe's sins would be forgotten. Do you know what happened to that young girl, Lloyd?"

"No…" Lloyd shook his head, "I-Is she…?"

"That woman came into this world almost thirty years ago, and found herself in the care of a few stray merchants…" Ren shook his head, drawing his cloak over his body, "That was, until her powers returned to her. A girl that could copy the powers of others? They cast her out as soon as they felt she could survive. And survive she did, survive she did for years and years. Do you know what then happened to that young woman?"

Lloyd shook his head, making Ren grin, "That woman became Skylar's mother!"

"What?" Lloyd turned to where Skylar was standing. Skylar had a hand outstretched, and in that hand was flame. The fire in the room grew once more, lighting up the entire room once more. When she put her hand down, her expression of anger towards him only seemed to deepen. Lloyd looked from her to Ren, his own gears turning, "Then you… married her?"

"Marriage?" Ren scoffed, "You believe that anyone would marry a freak like her?" Ren crossed his arms, "No. In fact, she only found love with another freak! And that freak loved her more than anything could! They raised a child together, giving her one spark of happiness in this world. One thing for her to look upon and feel hope for her future. And then it was all taken away."

Ren's hand tightened, "You master the elements, young Lloyd, but do you truly control them? The weather moves upon its own, time will flow no matter how you manipulate it. The elements took her away from her. She died in a flood, protecting the one thing that she cared most about. The world, so cruel to her and her people, took her away from the thing that brought her joy. And thus, I was left to raise Skylar, alone."

Lloyd turned to truly stare at Skylar. The girl had lowered her hand of flame and instead, she stared at Lloyd with her own hate filled eyes. Lloyd was forced to turn his sight away from her after a few moments. Those eyes, they were eyes he had never seen before. He'd seen hatred, rage, and even seen some scary things in people's faces, but nothing like that. Nothing like the smoldering intensity that she forced upon him.

"I'm going to let you in on a lllliiittttttttttlleee secret now, Lloyd," Ren leaned forward, "I have no powers of my own."

"What?" Lloyd blinked, snapped out of his trance by Ren's comment, "But… everyone has something! Everyone has even just a little power in them!"

"Correct, but I am an exception," Ren inhaled, "Skylar's mother loved me for that reason. We were both rejects of this world. We both were things that could never be accepted. And we birthed a daughter that was the same. The world would never allow for her to exist in it.. And so, we're changing this world!"

Skylar walked around Lloyd, pushing him aside as she did. She stood in front of Ren, who reached out to place a hand on her shoulder. Skylar slowly reached up onto her back and drew the sword on her back, revealing to Lloyd that it was no ordinary blade. It was a sword that looked to be made of some sort of bone, fashioned into a point at the top but jagged and rough down the sides. The hilt was metal that looked fiercely melted into the bone itself. As she held it towards him, her eyes began to go navy as her blade was consumed with lightning.

"W-What are you doing?" Lloyd raised his hand, instinctively drawing up wind in his palms, "...Y-You're not really Ren, are you…?"

"Righty-o!" Chen giggled, "I'm the Chen that you're trying to stop! You know, the big bad that you're learning all these powers for! I bet you're wondering right now why I told you all this, hmm?"

Skylar swung her sword at Lloyd. The action was fast enough that he hardly had enough time to counter it with the burst of wind. While he dispersed the electricity, the sheer force of Skylar's strike sent him to the ground. As he collapsed onto it, Skylar moved to point the blade at his neck.

"Y-Yeah, of course I am!" Lloyd shook his head as best he could, "You're, you're trying to send this world into war! Do, do you know what you're doing to people? The pain you're going to cause just, everyone?!"

"Of course I do!" Chen grinned, "Do you know the pain that Skylar's mother faced being rejected like that? The pain that Skylar felt, growing up without her mother? The pain I felt, growing up with any powers to call my own?" Chen only smiled even wider, "The world is so rotten, it stinks! All these tribes have covered up so many corpses and lies that all it takes is a little push to roll back the sheets to show it all. Everyone is so easy to turn against one another. You aren't apart of this world, Lloyd. You're just some child that is running around getting stronger to throw a punch at an enemy that isn't really there!"

Lloyd tried to sit up, but Skylar pushed the sword down further on his throat to let her dad continue, "It's as easy to destroy the world as it is to kill you, right now! Hehe! Imagine that, when the war is all over, I can walk to the survivors and that I was the one that killed their savior. And then Skylar here can kill them before they have too long to grieve!" Chen laughed, "A child such as yourself has no business here. I think that we should perhaps take one of your hands, then that way you'll only be at half strength! Hehe, what do you think, Skylar?"

"Whatever you say, dad," Skylar charged her sword with lightning again and jabbed it into Lloyd's arm. The boy convulsed and shrieked as the pain shot through him, seemingly melting through all him at once. When it was over, he saw that his left arm was completely limb. Skylar moved the sword tip towards his wrist.

"I'll make this quick," Skylar stated coldly, moving to lift her sword up and bring it down.

Lloyd let out a cry of terror as the sword came down. He shut his eyes, expecting to feel the pain as his hand was lobbed off. Instead, nothing came. When he opened his eyes, he turned to see a wooden staff was holding back the sword from his wrist. Holding said staff was the face of his father, who looked down at Lloyd with an insistent expression.

Seeing his chance, Lloyd sent a burst of ice out from his other hand, striking Skylar's blade and pushing her back. He scrambled to his feet quickly, panting as he held onto his still numb arm. Garmadon quickly leapt in front of his son, holding his staff defensively.

"Lloyd, did she hurt you?!" Garmadon spat angrily.

"N-No, dad, she didn't get the chance…" Lloyd spoke quietly.

"Get outside and get back to the Firstbourne, now!" Garmadon growled, "Go!"

Lloyd flinched away from the harsh sound in his father's tone. Quickly, he got up and began to scramble his way back to the door he'd come in from. As soon as he was gone, Garmadon looked to the two and let out a long sigh.

"Garmadon!" Chen giggled, "So glad you've come to join us! You weren't supposed to send away the last act before you started, though."

"Enough with the nonsense, Chen," Garmadon growled, "You just tried to hurt my son. Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right now for that?"

"One? But there are so many!" Chen paused and tapped his chin, "Oh! I know! I have two! One: my daughter here is the best bodyguard I could ever hope to have. So good luck getting past her! And two is even more simple!" Chen grinned, "Lloyd knows about the Amber Tribe now!"

"...What?" Garmadon tensed up, "Why… why would you tell him that?!"

"It's a father's responsibility to impart knowledge on his son," Chen shrugged, "But it seems you were a little lacking in that department. So I took the chance to step in for you!"

"He's a child, Chen!" Garmadon lowered himself further into his fighting stance, "We are only doing what we must to combat your ways. The world is going to go to war and we have to stop you."

"Hmm?" Chen raised his ear to Garmadon, "Oh, I'm sorry, I think you are forgetting that children have a little bit more intellect than you give them credit for? And little Skylar here learned it even younger than your little prodigy!" Chen laughed darkly, "...Whether she wished to or not."

"Silence!" Garmadon looked to Skylar and slowly inhaled, "Well then Chen, are you to say that you are a better parent than I? I'm sure we can discuss parenting techniques."

"Certainly!" Chen giggled, "I think first of all we should talk about the openness a parent should have with their child?"

Garmadon gave Skylar a long look. The two slowly lowered both of their weapons, an understanding between them a fight would lead to nothing. Chen reached out and patted the top of Skylar's head as she put her sword away. Skylar didn't seem to react much to the touch, keeping her eyes focused on Garmadon. Slowly, her angry expression shifted to that of simple ambivalence towards him.

"Father, should I go?" Skylar asked, "I don't think he wants me around here right now."

"Hmm, sure, sure, go run outside and play!" Chen looked to Garmadon as he spoke, "Just stay away from that little boy you saw, alright?"

"He doesn't look that fun anyways," Skylar shrugged. With that, Skylar lowered her hands and her hands began to move in a strange fashion, causing her body to suddenly zip away with the mimicry of speed going through her body.

"A member of the Amber Tribe should never have been able to hold so many powers…" Garmadon shook his head, "How can she..?"

"Her mother spent decades sealed away absorbing the powers of those around her," Chen smirked, "At least, that's that I guessed!"

"You have a way with your words, Chen," Garmadon slowly raised his hand, a purple flame crackling at the palm, "I am not above showing you the power that you are trying to take from me."

"Take from you? Never!" Chen laughed, "No, I want you and Lloyd to be around! I want you to know everything I give you! Come now…" Chen opened his hands, "We wouldn't want harm to come to that dear child's mother, would we…?"

"...You do not know his mother," Garmadon shook his head, "She swore never to speak of Lloyd or myself."

"Oh yes, you were a naughty little boy… sneaking over the temple walls, getting yourself into all sorts of trouble…" Chen placed his arms behind his back, "I forget, didn't the Firstbourne tell you both to stay inside? Oh yes… I bet little old daddy would give you quite a punishment for having a child…"

"Do not act like you know anything about me, or anyone else, Chen," Garmadon sighed, "You tire me just by speaking."

"Then let me tire you more," Chen grinned wide, "I've heard the tales of you, Garmadon. The man clad in armor, wielding powers none has ever been able to truly see. A man that fights in wars and then vanishes the next. Granted, there haven't been any wars as of late, but I think I might be changing that!" Chen giggled for several seconds, "I think you know far more about this world then you should, Garmadon. Why… I wonder how long until Lloyd becomes just as knowledgeable…"

"You speak far too much," Garmadon shook his head, but before he could talk, Chen had rushed up in his face and grinned at him.

"I think you complain too much! Bah, old men act like they can shut down everything!" Chen threw his hands out and spun about, "You know _nothing_ Garmadon, and yet you try to own me? You will hurt Lloyd far more than you will hurt me by doing that! How long, exactly, were you planning on waiting to tell him about the Amber Tribe?"

"It didn't matter to him now," Garmadon shook his head, "When it became important, I would have told him. Is that not how it works for everyone?"

"Oh yes, wait until the corpses are stacked over the walls to tell the people they're under siege!" Chen rolled his eyes, "You play a dangerous game raising a child, Garmadon! You need be more careful!"

Chen danced his way over towards the wall, standing there and looking up towards it. As he did, he reached up to his chest and slowly reached to pull something from it. A piece of rope was clutched in his hands, and tied to that rope was a small jewel. The jewel was sparkling yellow, clearly sculpted by careful hands. As Chen slowly held it in hand, he spoke without turning around.

"They gave this to all of the members of the Amber Tribe that reached their initiation, you see," Chen ran his fingers along it, "It was the last thing that she ever got from her family. That family was killed in front of her. Actually, when I met her, she refused to buy new clothes, even though the ones she had were stained with blood. The people of this world did that, Garmadon, and I made the promise I would keep Skylar safe until the world was ready for her. Well… she won't live long enough for that to happen on its own. So here I am, ready to create one she can truly prosper in."

"You can try to tell me that you have pure motives, but you talk of worse than what they did to your wife," Garmadon shook his head, "You are even-"

"Wife? Oh please, you think anyone would marry two freaks willingly?" Chen turned to face Garmadon, "Call me crazy, in fact I probably am! I'm simply doing what I think is right. I'm not crazier and monstrous than you are. I mean, what do you intend to do with Lloyd when this is all over? Return to a tiny temple? I think you should really prioritize your own ideals, Garmadon."

Before Garmadon could talk, the entire room began to suddenly violently shake. Chen gave a massive grin to Garmadon and laughed, slowly backing up. Right on cue, a massive chunk of the temple ceiling fell between the two. Garmadon leapt backwards, putting distance between him and Chen. As the room began to crumble around them, Chen simply shrugged.

"And my ideals aspire to tear this entire world down!" Chen cackled, "Including this temple! No reminders to what Skylar's people suffered should remain! And that means you too, Garmadon! Bye bye!"

Chen casually began to walk out, the rubble falling around him in a perfect path. Garmadon narrowed his gaze and ran forward to try to leapt and intercept the man, but as soon as he did, another massive chunk of the ceiling fell directly towards him. Garmadon shouted and thrust his hands upwards, loosing purple flames from his fists, blasting the rocks apart as best he could. He raised his arms to cover his body as the shards still fell towards him as he tried to back up.

"Dad!" Lloyd's voice shouted from the hallway. As Garmadon turned, Lloyd brought his hands together, his eyes turning deep brown as he shot his hands out. He caught several chunks of falling debris in the air, his body quivering as he felt the weight of them suddenly feel as though they'd been placed right onto his shoulders.

Not wanting to waste his chance, Garmadon picked up his staff and quickly shot forward, running through the falling temple. Lloyd threw the chunks he had aside and redirected what he could away from his father. Garmadon spun his staff and knocked away the smaller pieces his son couldn't focus on. He slid his body across the ground underneath the arch into the main hallway, letting Lloyd focus on running with him.

Without waiting for his father's call, Lloyd grabbed Garmadon and his eyes flashed silver before their bodies were wrapped within the power of speed. Garmadon shut his eyes just in time upon seeing the color to prevent himself from feeling the effects of his world accelerating around him. The two raced out from the temple doors and towards the small patch of ground around the boiling lake, racing as fast as their bodies could carry them.

Just before they hit the water, Lloyd canceled out of his power, feeling lightheaded from switching between them so fast. Garmadon, seeing this, sent his staff out into the ground to halt their momentum, ending with them lurching forward over the surface of the water. Lloyd sank to a knee as Garmadon turned to watch the main structure of the temple crumble in on itself. As it slowly crumbled away into nothing, Garmadon looked further up.

As some of the towers were dragged down along with the main center, Skylar hovered in the air. The girl was floating using gravity, and using earth to forcibly rip the temple apart. As she laid eyes on them, she let go of the power of earth, allowing the rest of the temple to crumble in naturally. As she slowly raised her arm to summon something else, a figure appeared behind her.

"Now now, Skylar, we've made our point," Chen, seemingly walking on nothing in the air, slowly lowered her arm, "They know what they are facing, let us go and get someplace with baths now, yes? Those temples are filthy!"

"Yeah… a bath would feel nice," Skylar looked down to the temple, "I need more practice with some of this though. I didn't get the temple fast enough…"

"We weren't trying to kill them, dear. If we did, they'd be martyrs!" Chen laughed, "Wait until we have an audience to do that. Now, come, they've seen what they need to, let's go!"

With that, Chen began to walk on the air away. Skylar turned to Lloyd and slowly turned with him, making her way away from them. The two began to step down the air until they disappeared behind the temple. As Lloyd stood up to go towards them, Garmadon put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's not worth it, son," Garmadon groaned, "Chen has this planned out. If you attack him now it will only cause more problems. We need to wait for the best time."

"The, best time… right…" Lloyd looked down, "She… she's so much better than me at that, Dad. I could barely lift things in the air and, she's using multiple at once!"

"That is the trick of the Amber Tribe, son. They can do only what they copy," Garmadon put his hand on Lloyd's shoulder, "She can only use her powers to the extent at which she took them. You, you can grow beyond her in ways she could never hope to reach."

"That… right, that must be the amber thing… dad," Lloyd looked up slowly, "...Was what Chen said, true? That, that the reason I wasn't, allowed to see the world was because, they murdered all of them?"

"..." Garmadon looked down at the ground. He didn't respond.

"Dad?" Lloyd blinked, "Dad please… tell me. Is, is Skylar really the last member of the Amber Tribe?"

"She, is, yes son…" Garmadon sighed, "Normally a member of the Amber Tribe would never be able to hold powers more than a day at most, but she can hold them far longer. I don't know how long until she loses her mimicry but, it is safe to say she is dangerous."

"Am… am I going to have to fight her?" Lloyd bit his lip, "She, she looked so sad, dad. Like, like she was hurting really badly. I think that she's, she's worse off than anyone we've ever met."

"With a father like Chen, anyone would be," Garmadon scoffed, "Let us return to Firstbourne, son. We have a long journey ahead of us. You need to learn more elements before we can even think of fighting Chen."

"Y-Yeah, of course…" Lloyd stood up, "She's right over the hill, she, led me here."

"Did she now…" Garmadon looked over the hill to see the tips of Firstbourne's horns peeking the horizon, "I see. Let us use fire to cross this lake, and we will leave this place."

Lloyd slowly sparked his powers, still feeling slightly woozy as he did so. Slowly, he brought his hands down and gently grabbed his dad's wrist, flooding them both with the flame. The two stepped forward, sliding into the water together. The boiling temperatures were no more than a simple dull heat as the two began to swim their way across, away from a broken history, now laying in even more ruins.

Lloyd could only wonder more of what he would see, and what lay behind those sad eyes of Skylar.


	6. Sun - Domination

"What do you mean there USED to be an island here?!" Jay shouted, staring over the side of the Bounty.

The Bounty currently hovered over a massive patch of ocean that appeared as though a hurricane had blown through. Massive chunks of what looked like rock were floating along the surface of the water, but daggerd water was being drawn into the middle of a massive vortex. In the darkness beneath the waves, massive land masses could be just barely made out. Hard winds buffeted the side of the ship, and thus the ship had to hover a distance away from the center of what had, apparently, been an island.

"Not just any island, Chen's Island," Garmadon brushed back his graying hair and shook his head, "He was a vile man that was instrumental in starting the Serpentine Wars. For his crimes in the hand he played in the deaths of many, he was exiled along with his followers to this island. It seems as though someone has taken it upon themselves to wipe him off the map."

"But, why would anyone do that?" Cole shook his head, "How could anyone even do that?"

"I do not know, but this feels deliberate," Wu walked down the stairs from the main wheel, "Whoever did this, they wanted us to see. Nobody would even know this location unless they knew about Chen. And nobody still has knowledge of this place besides Garmadon and myself. Someone did this to get our attention."

"Someone blew up an entire island just to get your attention?" Kai thrust his hand off to the side of the ship, "Who has enough power to just, go and do that?!"

"If we knew that, we would going for them already, Kai," Zane bowed his head, "I believe we need to analyze this situation further before we make any decisions."

"Well put, Zane."

From the entrance to the below deck area, Sun walked out. The white haired man walked forward, clad in a suit that was equal parts of green and gold, highlighted with white throughout it. He walked to the edge of the deck and reached out to grip the railings, leaning out to look closer at the destruction in front of them. A blast of wind to the Bounty made him pull up, slowly placing his hand over his eyes to look again.

"Father, how large was Chen's Island?" Sun asked, "Any reference will do."

"Let me see…" Wu paused and walked up the stairs, returning with a map of Ninjago, "The island is approximately… here," He pointed his hand to the location, "But it is so small it cannot be seen on the map. If I were to guess… perhaps four or so times of Ninjago City."

"Something blew up an island that big?!" Jay shouted, "But, but!"

"Yes, we hear you, Jay," Garmadon shook his head with an annoyed glance, "This is dangerous, brother. I have never seen anyone strong enough to do this before."

"Me either, brother," Wu sighed, "This is troubling. Putting aside their power, how did they know this place? We made sure that any mention of Chen or his island was scrubbed from all the texts we could find."

"Clearly, we missed some things," Garmadon grimaced, "Though, I think for now we should be grateful they have put their power to destroying something evil."

"Regardless of the sins that Chen committed, that does not mean that his execution was warranted," Sun turned to Garmadon, "Uncle, do you know of any being at all that could bring this destruction?"

"No… unfortunately not," Garmadon bowed his head, "Believe me, if we did we would not be hesitating to stop them at once."

"Hmm… Nya!" Wu shouted, "Scan Ninjago for any reports of crime or destruction! Perhaps this asdaggerlant could be attempting to get our attention elsewhere."

"Already on it," Nya called out over the intercom, "I'll keep you posted!"

"Good, set a course for Ninjago City," Wu narrowed his gaze, "If this thing is willing to harm people like Chen, then they could have no problems hurting the people as well."

"Sun, fetch the Golden Weapons," Garmadon ordered, "The Ninja will have need of them. Be ready yourself for when we arrive."

"I will ready us at once," Sun quickly disappeared beneath the Bounty's deck to fetch the items. In the meantime, the other Ninja quickly scattered to arm themselves otherwise.

Wu and Garmadon made their way to the main cockpit, silent as they went. The bounty turned and rocketed itself off towards Ninjago, jets firing at full speed. As the ship sped along, the two Masters made their way until they had entered the cockpit with Nya. The young girl was tapping away at a massive computer screen, attempting to parse out massive bits of information on the screen. As the two walked in, she only gave them a glance before looking again.

"There's something strange…" Nya pulled up the image of an apartment that looked as though it'd been burst open at the wall, "The other day, a man named Sanders Saunders was murdered. Nobody saw who got in, but they daggerd that he blasted the entire wall of the apartment to get to him. He was found dead with strange burns all over his body. I got a picture here…" Nya clicked to enlarge a photo, "The burns are weird though, they only affected the skin, not the clothes he wore."

"Brother!" Garmadon shouted as soon as the image came up, "Isn't that?!"

"It… can't be!" Wu shook his head, "That… that's Krux! He was hiding in plain sight this entire time?"

"Nya, did they find any family members related to this Sanders Saunders?" Garmadon asked forcefully. Nya turned nervously to the screen and tapped away again.

"No, they didn't…" Nya paused, "This article here says that no immediate family was found. They found a strange set of armor in his apartment though, I can't get a picture of it though."

"Brother," Garmadon turned, "Do you realize what this means?"

"Yes… it means that whoever is doing this likely destroyed Chen's Island as well…" Wu rubbed his chin, "Hmm… but how did this man know about Krux before even we did?"

"Is there anything else that you can see, Nya?" Wu asked, "Anyone at all, gone missing, killed, anything?"

Nya pulled up the database of missing persons from the police center, "Here, tell me if you see anyone, Master Wu," Nya began to slowly scroll through them, letting him look.

"Nothing else out of the ordinary," Nya leaned up, "But whoever did this knew a lot of things we didn't. The only other thing I'm detecting is some unusual ocean currents!"

"We must not worry about the tides!" Sun stepped into the cockpit, his arms behind his back and posture straight as he walked, "Someone is committing horrible acts, and it is up to us to make them see the error of their ways."

"Sun, something seems off about this," Nya called out to him, "Someone knows more than we do! And they're doing things that don't seem to make any sense. Maybe we should try to find more information on this guy."

"No," Sun shook his head, reaching down to his hips. He plucked a small wooden sword hilt and focused. Slowly, it began to glow until it had turned into a massive glowing sword of light. He turned so that the light reflected on his face, then inhaled a moment before speaking.

"Someone has destroyed people, including an entire island, we do not have the luxury of waiting," Sun lowered his sword, "We must get to Ninjago City and ensure the people are safe!"

"I believe he has a point," Garmadon bowed his head, "We can do more research on the way. Whoever has done this has intentionally begun to lay bread crumbs for us to follow. To Ninjago City, full speed!"

"I'm already on it!" Nya rushed over from the computer, grabbing the wheel and thrusting it forward. With a new burst of fuel, the Bounty lurched forward towards Ninjago City.

* * *

"What…" Sun whispered as he stood with his summoned sword at the front of the Bounty.

Ninjago City was nothing like the team had ever seen it as before. The city itself was covered by a massive black cloud that seemed to block out any light from entering it, meaning the entire city was a set of black, silver, and the harsh yellow lights of the buildings. Streams of people were fleeing from the city in droves, cars flying down the roads that carried them anywhere else. The city looked undamaged, but an aura of something sinister lay around it.

"Brother…" Garmadon gripped the railing of the Bounty behind Sun, "I've never seen anything like this before. What has happened to Ninjago City?"

"I do not know… this is evil the likes we have never seen…" Wu looked over towards the dark cloud and then looked to Sun, "Can you see anything, Sun?"

Sun slowly shook his head, "Nothing. But, if that is darkness like you claim, then there is nothing that cannot be pushed back by the light!"

Sun summoned his broadsword from the hilt again, taking it in both hands and holding it far over his head. The sword glowed in his hands before he moved up onto one foot and spun in place. When he stopped, he swung the sword in a circle in front of him, causing a ribbon of light to form in the air. The energy of his spin transferred into the ribbon. He turned to one of the cannons on the ship and turned it to the side, aiming it straight through the circle. The others scrambled out of the way as he fired a shot right through it.

The shot passed through the ribbon, right as Sun focused and caused the ribbon to burst with a shout of 'Release!' The extra force shot the ball all the way towards the city in the distance. Sun waited with baited breath as it approached the cloud. Just as it touched daggerd cloud, a massive arc of black lightning shot out and struck it, causing the shot to burst apart in the air. Sun stared in shock as it was left there, completely rendered useless.

"...What just happened?!" Jay shouted, pointing towards the darkness, "Is… is the cloud alive?!"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's tough!" Kai raised the Sword of Fire overhead, "That wasn't your full strength, was it, Sun?"

"No… but it was a harsh warning shot," Sun spun his broadsword in hand, "I'm shocked that it did nothing… not even Cole would manage to stand up to that one."

"I resent that!" Cole shouted, "I've stood up to any and all attacks you've ever thrown at me!"

"I believe Sun was referring to the relative amount of damage compared to the output in energy it required to withstand the attack," Zane smiled, "Sun can output a rather large amount of energy compared to our own Golden Weapon-enhanced abilities."

"Well whoever this guy is, they better be ready to get Kai-ed!" Kai lifted the Sword of Fire up into the air, causing a massive whirlwind of flames to fly around his body before sucking up into a red gem placed in the eye of the dragon on the blade.

"I agree," Zane spun the Shurikens of Ice on his hands, a gem embedded into each of them, "But I also suggest that we approach this with caution, regardless of whether or not we 'Kai' this enemy."

"It doesn't work when you say it like that, Zane!" Kai shook his head, "It's a makeshift verb, not a noun!"

"But, you are a noun?" Jay pointed to Kai, "You know, noun, 'a person, place or thing?' And if you're also using your name as a verb then that's something too."

"An anthimeria," Zane added with a smile, "The action of using one form of a sentence as another."

"Thanks for the grammar lesson Zane," Cole spun the massive Scythe of Quakes over his shoulder, "But I'm pretty sure whoever we take down only needs to hear one thing: Ninja-Go!"

Sun stared forward at the city in front of him as the Bounty gradually drifted a distance from it. He wanted to charge forward, but something in his gut daggerd that he shouldn't. They had deflected one of his attacks just like that, and the fact they could make out the hand from this distance meant it was truly massive. What sort of beast was waiting in that city for them?

"Nya," Sun turned around, "I do not believe it is a good idea to approach the city in the Bounty. We would be wise to land out of sight and sneak out way into the city. Whoever is doing this likely is attacking from the center of the city. We will approach on foot and do recon until we find out who is doing this. Father, I believe that you two should accompany us."

"I believe that would be wise," Wu concurred, "Whoever this is, they have already shown a willingness to kill and destroy. Whether or not the previous events are connected, it would be wise to go together."

"I shall come along as well!" Garmadon called out, "Nya, take the Bounty beyond the hills and land there. Sun's warning shot has likely alerted them we are in the area. It would be best for us to approach from a different angle. Take us to the east side of the city!"

"Aye, aye, captain!" Nya thrust the wheel in front of her, causing the Bounty to spin and begin to fly them away towards the hills behind them. The Bounty flew over the massive crowded lanes of fleeing citizens, much to many of their shock. The flying ship came over the hills and landed nearly ninety degrees away from their previous position. When they landed, Sun drew his hood up.

"We move like shadow from here on, Ninja!" Garmadon ordered, pulling a facemask up, "Do not get spotted. If you are, retreat to the Bounty at once. We cannot risk being caught by this strange foe!" Garmadon narrowed his eyes, "My brother and I are in charge until we obtain the information. Are we understood?"

"Yes, Master Garmadon!" Sun and the others agreed, "Yes, Master Wu!"

"Then let us be off!" Garmadon leapt from the Bounty's deck and landed with a flip, racing his way across the hills. Wu followed suit, then by Sun, Kai, Zane, Cole and Jay respectively. Nya slowly walked out over the upper deck of the Bounty to watch them flee, a wistful sigh escaping her as they raced away.

Garmadon and Wu decided to rush underneath one of the overpasses of the city, using it for cover. They did not stick to the roads for long, however, and instead used the sparse coverings of the land around Ninjago City to get closer. The group split up once they were halfway there, with Wu, Kai, Zane and Cole going one way and Garmadon, Sun and Jay going the other. Garmadon, meanwhile, found a road of several abandoned vehicles and simply used those to sneak their way up until they had reached the outer buildings.

Just seeing the city was enough to make Sun nervous. It was far from the majestic sight of progress that he had seen before. While the buildings hadn't changed, or not in a way he could see outwardly, the entire city now felt dark and foreboding. The large structures now almost felt like massive towers of a fortress. The small buildings they approached felt like gaps in a wall they were sliding into, and not just a small road into the city. They slid against the walls and began to crawl their way forward, Garmadon keeping point as they moved.

Sun's eyes narrowed as they reached the city. Once they stepped across the threshold of its borders, it felt as though the entire area had darkened. Stepping inside made his skin crawl as well, and a cold feeling drifted over him, even if it was a mild day outside. Jay and Garmadon seemed to feel it too, for they shuddered not long after Sun did.

The changed feeling of the city only continued as they continued into it. As they began to slink through the city, the ground seemed to be peppered with strange purple rocks. The rocks seemed to be sloshing around within their shape like liquid inside of a container. Their surface was speckled with flakes that seemed to move in and out of substance. The 'rocks' remained in their shape, however, and several massive sections of street and sides of buildings were broken with them. Jay moved to investigate one, but Sun thrust his hand out to stop him.

Garmadon looked up and gestured to the cloud layer. Now that they were underneath the clouds, the group could see that the clouds were not a random mass and instead were swirling around a central point. It appeared to be roughly in the center, but still a fair number of blocks away. At that point, something was stretching into the sky, and the sight of it made Sun's eyes widen.

A massive tower stretched into the sky, seemingly formed from the same strange liquid rocks around them. Unlike the rocks, however, the tower seemed to have hardened, and thus a building like none other stretched into the sky. Massive pillars sprouted from the ground and reached up the building at random points to support it as it stretched higher than all the other skyscrapers around it. At the top of the tower was a massive sculpted platform that seemed to overlook the city, and upon it, someone stood atop of it.

Normally, it would be impossible to see someone standing that high up. The reason why, however, was due to the massive wings sprouting from their back. The wingspan was nearly twenty feet, and the size was just enough for them to be able to make out the figure on the top. He appeared to be holding something in his left hand, and from his perch atop the tower, there was little doubt in any of their minds that was the man they had come to face.

"**Ninja, you finally came. I was beginning to wonder if you no longer had any drive to fight here. Then again, it appears as though you have had far less training than I remember." **

Sun, Garmadon and Jay froze dead in their tracks. The sound seemed to come from all direction, not just from in front of them. The group looked around, but the source was not clear. No sooner than the voice had ended, the ground behind them began to erupt and sprout more of the liquid rocks, forcing them to rush out into the open streets. Once they had, the voice continued.

"**There is no need to hide. I have known you were here since you set foot in the city. Those rocks are concentrated Dark Matter, and I can sense the presence of those around it. I would not recommend touching them if I were you, Jay." **

"How'd he know I was…?" Jay started to ask, but Sun silenced him. He walked up to one of the rocks in front of him and stared into its surface.

"If you know we are here, then why have you not done away with us, or come to face us yourself?" Sun demanded.

"**I have no reason to face you on your own terms. I have taken your city, therefore it is your job to take it back from me. Since you're here, I am willing to assume you have seen my strength already demonstrated. I have already done you a service by removing potential enemies in your own future."**

"Our future?" Sun asked into the rock, "What harm have you cast upon the citizens?!"

"**Harm? You clearly misunderstand my motives here. Why would I dare risk hurting the subjects of my new empire? If you are referring to the rocks, I plan to permantely infuse them into the foundation of this city.. I needed to make certain none would be caught as I did so."**

"You believe we will let you raze the city without a fight?" Sun scoffed, "You are a fool!"

"**Quite the opposite, actually, Sun. I have planned for this day for years. So many interesting things have happened in that time, and I have studied all of you. I knew that you would come, and I made sure as well you would have no fear of anyone getting hurt when you came to fight me. I am impressed you found the Bounty, considering you did not meet the Serpentine as I anticipated." **

"Allow me to talk to him, Sun," Garmadon slowly nudged Sun aside from the rock, even if he suspected the actual gesture meant very little, "You clearly have attempted to divine the future, and I can warn you that whatever you saw was nothing more than glimpses into one of many outcomes for this day. I doubt that the days will go as you have predicted."

"**Garmadon… I am surprised you and Wu came with them. Why, I was under the impression that you and Wu would hang back and allow your Ninja to do the work. It seems you are different than I remember. But I guess I am glad you came. It makes today that much easier to complete." **

"And what would that be?" Garmadon narrowed his gaze, "Why exactly do you want us here for?"

"**Before that, I would like to ask, why did you not marry Misako?"**

Garmadon's body froze. Jay and Sun turned to look at Garmadon, who seemed to have felt someone step on his grave from the look on his face. Garmadon slowly inhaled, and when he spoke, the color seemed to have returned to his face from his momentary shock.

"You take me as a man that would attempt to get in the way of my brother's romance?" Garmadon laughed, "You know nothing about us."

"**Perhaps not. It seems that my preparation has changed far, far more than just my own place in this world. I will be waiting for you at the top of my tower. I will not obstruct your journey to it, in fact I will make it easier for you. I wish to test my new powers against you, all of you even. I have many questions that you must answer for me. Please, come at once."**

A massive rumbling noise came from all around them. Sun summoned his broadsword, and Jay drew out the Nunchucks of Lightning. Garmadon simply readied his fists. Around them, the rumbling continued until to their right a building was speared apart by massive dark matter rocks. The structure was ripped apart by the rocks, and when the rocks retracted, it collapsed into rubble. Buildings began to be torn apart in the same manner, one after another, forming a winding path that gradually lead to massive tower it seemed.

"What sort of demonic power is this?" Sun whispered, crouching down to maintain his balance, "What sort of monster are we dealing with?"

"An arrogant one that believes he can overcome all seven of us at once," Garmadon declared, "I imagine Wu and the others were given a similar message. It would be pointless for us to sneak out way there now."

"I-I'm not sure this is a good idea anymore, guys…" Jay pointed to the buildings, "He just ripped apart buildings in front of us!"

"Jay, calm yourself," Sun walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder, "We will be a team when we face him. This man fights alone, and we fight as a team. They cannot defeat us, nor can they stave away our spirits!"

"Sun is correct," Garmadon nodded his head, "Come, we will meet up with my brother shortly."

"There they are!"

Garmadon turned to see the other group rushing towards them across the street. As they rushed towards them, Jay breathed a sigh of relief. Once they had arrived, Wu raced up to his son and quickly planted both hands on his shoulders.

"Sun, are you alright?" Wu asked hurriedly, "We heard the sound of the buildings collapsing, and they lead us right to you!"

"I'm fine, father," Sun smiled to him, if slightly, "Did you hear the voice as well?"

"Yeah," Kai shuddered, "It was freaky. We think it's the guy on top of that tower up there!"

"What did he tell you?" Sun turned to Kai. Wu let go, but stayed close to him.

"That he wishes to test himself against us at the tower," Zane gestured to the tower in question, "We should hurry to the tower at once."

"Or, maybe we shouldn't go walking right into whatever _trap_ that guy has laid out for us?" Cole pointed to the tower, "It's clearly a trap!"

"Trap or not," Garmadon shook his head, "We must go to stop him. If he has laid this out for us, then he has no intentions of tricking us it seems. Brother, surely you see what he is doing?"

"He is goading us into walking into his sword, but the path forward remains painless," Wu replied solemely, "It is a risky move to trust, brother."

"**I see that my attempt to get you moving was not clear enough. Perhaps this will show you what I mean?"**

The ground began to rumble once more. The group turned to see a skyscraper near the tower suddenly begin to quake and shudder. Rocks around the group retracted into the ground, and massive spikes tens of feet high struck into the base of the skyscraper to rip apart its foundation. The group watched as the building began to sink into itself, collapsing down towards the ground. When it landed, the sound of its crashing filled their ears with a massive roar. The sight of such a massive structure falling caused the group to move together and crouch down in shock.

"**For every minute that you are not at my tower, I will tear down another building. If you think my attempt to remake this city for my own ends is objectionable, I suggest you all get running."**

Sun set his jaw, "He's willing to destroy the homes of countless people just for us to fight him? He truly is mad."

"Mad, but clearly powerful," Wu placed a hand on Sun's shoulder, "Let us make haste then, Ninja! We are on a timer now. Sun, stick close to me!"

The group formed up and quickly followed the massive path of broken buildings that led through the city. As they ran, the distance they were forced to close meant more buildings around them were torn apart. Some they couldn't see, but others were ones painfully close. The run there was kept in silence, the dread over what they were being led into making it hard for any of them to truly speak. Wu kept close to Sun as they ran, casting glances to him as they rushed their way presumably into battle.

After nearly ten minutes of running, the ground finally slid their way out between a broken building to finally reach the base of the tower. When they did, however, it appeared to have been formed from inside of another building. Sun slowly walked forward and picked up a small sign on the ground in front of them, lifting it up to see.

"Borg Tech?" Sun handed the sign off to Wu, "Why make this building your base of operations?"

"**It seems without a tragedy to capitalize on, Borg hasn't hit it big yet. I would have liked to use his tower, but it seems I had to make my own. Borg is safe though, never fear. He is a piece of my plans, after all. Though I know he will resist for a good while." **

The broken sliding doors of the former building the tower had seemingly grown out of were forced open with a screech. The interior of the building seemed to come with a wave of unsettling darkness that washed over the group. On the inside was what appeared to be a hovering slab of the dark matter that the tower was made of inside of a massive hollow chamber.

"**I do hope that this is a suitable ride for you. I haven't taken the time to put in stairs yet, so this will be your ride to the top. Come, ninja, I wish to see how strong you are in this time." **

"You mean 'at' this time, right?" Cole asked. He was given no reply .

"So it would seem, "Sun stood up straight, "Ninja! We rise to battle now! If he welcomes us into his fortress so readily, let us not waste this opportunity!"

"Yes… but be wary, Ninja," Wu shuddered, "There is a great evil in this tower, an evil that my brother and I have never faced. Your training, it seems, has come to this day. Let us face whatever this man believes he will levy upon us, and raise our heads high as he rise to face it!"

"Uh, well I for one think we shouldn't go into the dark scary tower made of what looks like concentrated evil. Eh?" Jay nervously shrugged his shoulders. The group turned to give him a harsh glare.

"Don't worry, we have the Golden Weapons, Wu AND Garmadon!" Kai smirked, raising his sword over his head, "It's not like he can take us all down at once!"

"Arrogance is as powerful a vice as a cripple, Kai," Garmadon narrowed his eyes, "Those weapons are nothing more than conduits. Sun is the only one of you who has truly mastered his abilities. Do not believe yourself infallible. You have not earned the right to think that of yourself."

"Oof, that was harsh," Cole patted Kai's shoulder, "Don't worry, Master Garmadon. We all know that we haven't fully mastered our weapons. What Kai _meant_ to say is that this guy up there thinks he can take us all down. What he doesn't realize is that we're a team, and that'll take down any one guy ten times over!"

"Agreed," Zane nodded his head, "As long as we remain together, we stand a chance."

"**While I appreciate that you all are readying yourselves for battle, need I remind you that I have you on a timer? Come, or I will destroy an entire block for your hubris." **

"There is no time to waste!" Sun raised his hilt up high, "Come now, Ninja! To our battle we go!"

The group rushed inside of the buildings entrance and up to the platform that the voice had indicated. Once inside, a sickening feeling seemed to encroach upon all of them. It was similar to the feeling of being drenched in water, yet instead of the simple discomfort of waterlogged clothes, it was a miasma of evil that attempted to slink into them. The air around them felt heavy, even as the platform was slowly risen up by the tower growing more rocks to reach out and raise the platform into the air.

"If only Misako were here," Wu sighed, "I believe that I have a vague memory of what this all is, but it eludes me."

"You have hardly reached the age of memory loss yet, brother," Garmadon joked, "Surely we do not have to write down all your lessons now, lest you forget them all?"

"Do not worry, father," Sun placed a hand on his shoulder, "You are not old enough yet for me to have to worry about feeding you yet. You have at least another ten years before that."

"I should remind you, brother, that you are not that much younger than I," Wu countered, "Why do you not worry about your own mental health?"

"Only one of us has had a child," Garmadon smirked, "I hear that ages you by several years at least."

A chuckle went through the makeshift lift. The group continued to ascend further and further, truly climbing past what the highest building in Ninjago could offer. Sun and the others quieted down as they rose, each of them drawing their weapons. Sun held his broadsword in front of him, charging it up with the light around him. The four ninja spun their Golden Weapons, each of them frothing with elemental powers that poured down from them. Garmadon drew a dagger from his hip. Wu held out his own hilt and caused a massive staff to form. The group took up their defensive positions, with Sun, Wu and Garmadon in front and the other Ninja facing away from them in a half circle.

Finally, the lift stopped. The lift seemed to melt into the floor and merge with it, preventing it from being used as an escape. The Ninja were facing a wall that curled up and over in an overhang. They were at the platform at the top of the tower, overlooking the entire Ninjago city and the cloud layer above them close enough they felt they could nearly touch it. The platform seemed to come to a pinch at the opposite end. Standing at the end of the platform was the man that had summoned them there.

The figure was completely black, but whether or not it was skin seemed strange. He stood taller than all of them, with four arms that were curled behind his back. He wore no helmet, letting his jet black hair messily splay out over him. He wore a set of armor that looked to be ancient, a mixture of red and blacks with a small amount of purple mingled within the colors. He stood with his back to the group, and when he turned around, his face looked to be someone not of much age older than the ninja. His eyes were a deep purple, and his lips and eyelashes were gray. When he stepped forward, they heard the shuffling of swords.

When he finished moving, they were able to see why. In each of his arms, something jutted out of his forearms. Massive blades curled out in ornate shapes, each nearly identical and in each arm. What was odd, however, was that they seemed to be emerging from inside of his arms, rather than being held. Slowly, the blades retracted up into his arms, fading from sight.

"Finally, you have come," The figure glared, "I am impressed it took you this long, Sun. The Green Ninja should have come running as soon as a threat arose, shouldn't he?"

"What are you?" Sun asked without hesitating, "What do you want with Ninjago?"

"Straightforward, I can respect that," The figure closed his eyes, "Allow me one moment."

The man's body seemed to suddenly turn into shadow. The group watched as he dissolved partially, his head remaining in the cloud but his body dissipating. When it came back together, he had only two arms, and the armor he wore had changed to a shade of blue and purple. He raised one arm, causing the blades to slide out of it to reveal it was truly within his arm. When they fully loosed themselves, he reached up to gently slide them together, causing them to seemingly fuse together until a double bladed staff was in his hand.

"I'm still getting the hang of this new body…" The man lifted his head up, "Then again, it certainly has its advantages."

"Why are you here?" Garmadon asked coldly, "And why shouldn't we take you down?"

"From your point of view, you have none," The figure sighed, "Come. Attack me."

The figure slowly reached up and spun his staff in hand. When he struck the ground with it, massive tendrils of dark power lanced out from it towards the group. Sun had barely enough time to throw his body to the side to avoid being spread on them. The tendrils struck the wall behind them, breaking a massive hole in it. Cole let out a nervous laugh upon seeing it.

"Alright, team!" Sun turned, "Masters, back us up! We will handle this foe!"

Sun slid his hands over his hilt and ran towards the man. As he did, he focused his power into his blade. The sword began to draw light from around him, charging itself up in the process and causing it to flare brightly as he ran. The figure in turn spun his staff about, forming a massive whirling shield from it that seemed to encompass his body. Sun narrowed his gaze and, at the last second, feinted to his right and spun his entire body around, letting his sword swing in a full circular arc before cleaving around to his opponent's left side. For a brief second, he saw a look of surprise in those eyes.

Suddenly, from underneath Sun, something sprouted from the ground. His eyes bulged and he intentionally let his sword miss the swing to instead go over the man's head to leap backwards from it. When he landed, he watched as massive black spikes retracted from a shadow cast on the ground. The figure stared at them seemingly as surprised as Sun.

"I… well then, it appears I can do that without thinking," He straightened himself up, spinning his staff around again, "Did I say to stop, Sun?"

Sun got ahold of his shock and rushed forward. He once more raced forward and let his blade swing towards the man, this time from an uppercut. The action was fast enough that Sun painted a ribbon of light in the air, then released the energy. The explosion momentarily blinded Sun, leaving him to ready another swing. The dark figure, however, emerged from the light first, swinging his staff. Unable to steady his feet in time, Sun was thrown back and made to stumble back.

With a massive shout, Kai raced forward, swinging the Sword of Fire overhead. The golden blade lit with flames that wrapped around him like coils, defending him as he raced in. Sun didn't have enough time to warn him before Kai had already swung wildly to him. The figure's body twisted out of the way of three swipes, letting Kai waste his strength. Then, his staff knocked hard into Kai's guard, snapping Kai's body back with every strike until the last strike struck him with the flat of the blade, causing Kai to go flying backwards towards the edge.

At the last second, Kai managed to plunge the sword into the ground, causing him to instead flip in an arc around the blade over the edge. When he stopped, he pried his hands off his sword and gasped out, "I just did that!"

"Kai!" Cole growled, then pointed the Scythe of Quakes towards the figure. Cole leapt into the air and struck the platform, causing it to violently shake. Cole raced forward, trying to swing his blade into the man. The figure, however, was hovering over the platform, massive dragon wings having sprouted from his back.

"No I don't need help!" The figure shouted suddenly, "Stay quiet! I know what I'm doing! After all…" The figure moved to grip his staff again, "They're far slower than I anticipated."

To his point, the figure's wings retracted into his body, swinging his staff overhead and bringing it down in a swipe towards Cole. Just the force of blocking it was enough to rattle Cole's entire body, and he was sent hard into the ground. The figure thrust his right hand out, causing tendrils of dark matter to rise from the platform and grab at Cole. He shouted in terror as they spun him around and flung him out back towards the group.

"H-Help! Get these things off of me!" Cole rapidly waved his hands around his body, even as the tendrils had gone away, "W-What is this stuff?!"

"Perhaps you would do well to learn," The figure placed his hands behind his back, "Dark Matter. The pure and uncorrupted essence of the Dark Island. At present, I am keeping its concentration back so as not to corrupt you where you stand. Only Sun would truly be able to withstand me, and even that would be for very little. Right now, I am giving you a chance," The figure narrowed his eyes, "Do you wish to waste that chance?"

"Ninja!" Wu gripped his staff, "Fight together! This foe is powerful!"

The figure spun his staff once more and separated it into two pieces once more. The blades slowly sank into his hands and down into his arms, disappearing from sight. The sight of watching it was almost nauseating as they watched it happen.

"Come at me, I won't use my blades at all," The figure looked to Wu, "Reliance upon a single weapon, no matter how powerful, will eventually lead to it being worthless."

Wu's eyebrow twitched as his lesson was parrotted back to him. Kai and Cole rushed back to the group. Sun, still clinging to the ground after Cole's strike, stood up and gripped his sword again. Sun slowly began to work his way to his right, keeping the figure in sight at all times. The ninja did the same until they were opposite one another. The figure brought his hands together, his torso going smoky once more before his four arms had appeared again.

With a shout, Sun made a rush forward. Once he was halfway there, however, he stopped. The ninja continued forward, the action having drawn the figure's attention from them. Zane threw one of the Shurikens of Ice at him, and the figure responded by sidestepping them in a blur. As the Shruiken flew off into the distance, the figure's top right arm shot out. From the shadows the arm cast, one of the tendrils shot out and extended out to grab the flying weapon. With a snap of his wrist, the tendril slung itself into the air and threw the shuriken into the ground in front of Zane. The explosion of ice it caused threw Zane off his feet and backwards.

Kai was once more on him as soon as Zane was down. He waited for Kai to rush forward, then he used his elbow to strike Kai's chin hard. Two of his other hands gripped Kai and heaved him into the air over his shoulder to slam his back into the ground. No sooner had Kai fallen, Jay was swinging his Nunchucks of Lightning at him. The figure raised his free arm up, blocking the strike with a burst of lightning. His hand shot out and grabbed the nunchuck, then he stepped on top of Kai to draw Jay in and use a kick to send him soaring away. Cole came next, trying to uppercut him. The figure's eyes widened as he drew his arms together in an X over his body, and from the shadows around them, massive black pillars shot up in an X in front of him, catching the Scythe mid-swipe. When they retracted, Cole was off balance enough for the figure to grab his shoulders and deliver a headbutt right into Cole's face, throwing him back.

Sun had waited for that exact moment. With the Emperor's guard down, he spun his sword in the air and ran forward. He sliced his sword straight up into the air, causing the ribbon to be painted right on the figure's back. The figure turned to him in confusion, giving Cole enough time to recover and launch forward. He smashed his weight into the figure, throwing him back into the ribbon of light. Once done, Sun grinned and held his blade up, releasing the power inside.

The explosion of light acted as a massive cover of brightness. The figure let out only a single gasp before he was consumed in its glow. Wu and Garmadon shot forward under the cover. Garmadon held his dagger out. Wu had his staff in hand, his hand having turned to reveal the staff was his own weapon. The two struck the figure in the chest with them, causing the figure to let out a cry. The combined assault ended as they all leapt away in tandem.

Sun wasn't going to let the figure get any time to relax, however. As fast as he could, he began to charge the blade again even as he began to swing it directly towards the figure. From the figure's top left arm, half of his blade extended out from the forearm, catching the sword right as it struck. The figure growled and shook his head, trying to shake off the effect of the light.

"I have this under control!" The figure shouted to nobody in particular, "I just have to deal with this annoying little Sun furst!"

"I'll be the first and last Sun you ever see!" Sun shouted, sliding backwards and then rushing in to swing again, "You won't have Ninjago City!"

Sun took a step forward, only to look down and see his shadow was moving. Even as he saw it, he had no chance to react. Large shadow chains shot upwards and began to wrap around Sun's arms, clicking into place as they did. The chains shot apart, dragging Sun into the air. They squeezed at his hands until, with a grunt of pain, his hand forced to open and drop the sword, causing it to vanish into a hilt on the ground beneath him.

"Overconfidence is a vice, as much as a strength, Sun," The figure held one hand up, while the other three began to crackle as balls of purple started to form within them. Sun struggled, but the chains held him firm. The three hands lifted up, pointing at the ground as the energy continued to grow. Realizing what was about to happen, Sun rapidly tried to yank his body free.

"FIRE!"

Kai shot the Sword of Fire forward in hand, causing a pillar of fire to strike the hand holding Sun up in the air. The figure shot an angry gaze to him, but the action began to burn his arm as it stayed there. He growled and tried to pull free, but it wasn't going to budge.

"ICE!" Zane raised his Shurikens of Ice together, blasting the figure's back with an icy stream.

"EARTH!" Cole struck the ground with the Scythe of Quakes, blasting into the figure's left.

"LIGHTNING!" Jay twirled the Nunchucks of lightning and then unleashed a torrent into his legs.

"NINJA-GO!" Wu and Garmadon shouted in tandem as they both raised their weapons and struck the figure in the front and back simultaneously, flooding them with power.

The figure let out a cry of pain as the combined assault washed into him. His entire body quaked as he felt it all starting to take him over, making his entire body rock. The power he had been collected sparked out as he dropped to one knee. Sun likewise fell to the ground with a hard crack. He lay there, groaning hard and panting as the air was knocked out of him.

"I have… this… under… control…" The figure gapsed, only to cry out again. HIs body began to rapidly pulse with dark power over itself, "Let me… show them… I can…!"

"**You've had your chance,"** A new voice came from the figure's lips, "**Now is my time."**

In a split second, something changed about the figure. His eyes lost their pupils, and the purple color darkened. His mouth suddenly contorted and he grew a sharp toothed snout. The snout turned to Wu and gave him an evil grin. His body pulsed with power, and dark lightning coursed down him. A massive burst of the power he'd been gathering earlier suddenly formed in his chest, then rapidly pushed out like an expanding sphere. Tendrils shot down the sphere, knocking all of the weapons the group held from their hands. The sphere struck them a second later, sending them all to the ground.

Garmadon was the first to recover. When he did, the figure wasn't there anymore. The figure stood with four arms, and he wore the same armor, but it was not the same person. The face of the figure had stretched and contorted to that of a horrifying dragon's face with teeth sharp enough to bite through rocks. His hand had transitioned into massive claws, and the blades hidden earlier were now proudly extending from the sides of the arms. Power collheased around the figure's head, and a helmet with a massive decorative flourish formed atop it. He'd grown a few inches as well, likely due to his now sharp feet.

"What...?" Wu gasped as he too got to his feet, "What… what are you?"

"**Do you not know the legends, old man? I suppose my form is not ideal, but it is certainly interesting. Who you just fought was my liberator. We share this body now, and now I'm going to have some fun. You will come to know me as other things, but you may call me… Overlord." **

"The… Overlord?" Garmadon stood up fully, "No… that's impossible. You should never be able to set foot in Ninjago! My father ensured that!"

"**Then it is time that you begin… believing,"** The Overlord cackled. The strange creature slowly brought his hands up to and charged up the power that the other had been attempting to, and unlike him, he managed to do so in a split second. Garmadon and Wu braced themselves with their weapons, ready to take the strike head on.

Sun's sword went flying through the air, painting a ribbon in it as Sun slid under it. The ribbon burst out and met the Overlord's attack to stop it. When Sun stopped sliding, he reached up and caught his sword and brought it down in front of him, panting hard. The Overlord turned to him, at first his eyes narrowing, then his lips curling into a hard grin as he instead redirected his beams towards Sun.

Sun rapidly twisted and threw his body through the air, dodging each of the beams and throwing his sword out towards the Overlord. The being raised his arms up to catch the sword with his arm blades, but Sun's goal wasn't that it seemed. Instead, he grabbed the sword tightly and flipped over the back of the Overlord to perform a helm splitter to the dark helmet he wore.

When Sun landed, he expected for the Overlord to be staggered. Instead, the being flipped around and blasted at Sun again. Sun had only enough time to scramble to the side and leap away as the Overlord pressed his assault. Sun saw indeed the helmet had been split apart, but whatever gash he'd left in the creature's head slowly began to morph and heal like the rest of his body. That was all Sun got before he was once more dodging rapidly.

Garmadon and Wu were not ready to take this attack lying down. Garmadon withdrew his dagger and threw the weapon directly into the ground behind the Overlord. In a split second, Garmadon appeared right where the blade lay and yanked it from the ground to swipe at the Overlord. The creature saw it from the corner of his eye and twisted his body to intercept it. As he did, Wu spun his staff around and a strange mist seeped from the center. With a blow, the mist spread out and turned into a floating platform he leapt up onto. With the height, he brought the staff down on top of the Overlord.

With a laugh, the Overlord raised his hand to link its shadow with one Wu produced in the air. With a single turn of the hand, the shadows under Wu launched up into a series of massive blades. Wu opened his staff and blew another platform under him to land on to stop them, but the Overlord was on him. Rather than attack with his hands, the Overlord instead opened his mouth to reveal his teeth to snap at the master.

"Brother!" Garmadon thrust his dagger towards Wu who, quickly, grabbed it as it flew past. The force carried him off the platform just as the teeth snapped at what would have been his shoulder. When Wu landed, he stabbed the ground with his dagger, bringing Garmadon to him.

"**Your weapons remind me of your father…" **The Overlord mused, "**One of you has the ability to flee, the other to advance. Such an interesting pair. You two embody his will in your essence… and it will be your downfall."**

"Silence!" Sun shouted, trying to attack with his sword while the Overlord had given him time to breathe. The Overlord simply raised one hand and unleashed a little burst of power, sending Sun backwards.

"You want Ninjago?!" Garmadon growled, "Then come and take it!"

"**I will, but first, I would like to ensure that we get rid of a little annoyance you two have been bringing on me…"** The Overlord turned to the ninja, who had reclaimed their Golden Weapons.

From the shadows below them, the Overlord's tendrils shot up and grabbed the weapons from their hands, then cracked to knock the four back down. The tendrils brought the weapons up in front of the Overlord, who slowly reached out to stroke the edge of the Sword of Fire. Upon feeling it, his teeth turned to a grin. Then, with a simple nod, the weapons were thrown over the edge of the building.

"NO!" Kai shouted, trying to rush out to grab them. The shadow tendrils disappeared, allowing him to watch them fall. Before they were able to hit the ground, a massive crack opened up, revealing dark matter underneath it. The weapons fell into the matter, sinking deep into them before being lost from sight.

"Our weapons..." Cole looked to Wu and down, "We can't use our powers without them!"

"**The Golden Weapons… a weapon any can use so long as they bind their weapons into them…"** The Overlord grinned, "**Perhaps it would be foolish to take those from you." **

From the dark matter inside the floor, four hilts rose up. The ninja blinked and scrambled to grab them, verifying they were the real things. Kai summoned his to be a massive black katana with red highlights in the metal, Zane a pair of shurikens, Cole a large two handed scythe, and Jay nunchucks. The Overlord rolled his eyes just seeing how similar they were to the Golden Weapons. Their weapons were flickering, however, and in a sense looked… weak. Within moments, they had completely faded, making them all look down in fear.

"**I have grown bored of this, so consider those a parting gift!"** The Overlord snapped his fingers, "**And kindly watch Ninjago fall, from the ground." **

With that, the Overlord brought his hands together and rushed forward. The ninja had enough time to block the blasts, but it seemed that was the intent. The force of the attack sent the ninja back through the wall behind them. The dark matter, however, seemed to lose density and they went right through it, shouting in terror as they were sent over the edge.

"Ninja!" Wu shouted, stepped forward. A single step after he had, however, the foot went down into the floor. Wu found his body rapidly sinking down. His eyes widened as the Overlord stepped over with a massive grin.

"**He wants you alive, it seems. Don't worry, the dark matter won't corrupt you yet…"** The Overlord snapped his fingers. With a single cry, Wu suddenly was gone.

"Brother!" Garmadon shouted, rushing over and trying to reach into the floor. His fist struck a solid surface, however, much to his shock.

The Overlord grinned, raising his staff behind Garmadon, "**Goodbye, Garmadon. Have a front row seat to watch the home you defended for so long… vanish…" **

The floor once more began to ripple, and Garmadon found his body thrown off the side of the building. Expecting it, Garmadon tried to throw his dagger to teleport back up, but the Overlord instead reached out and caught it in the air before it could strike the ground. He smirked and flung it far away, likely to teleport Garmadon far away when it landed. Garmadon was sent shouting through the city before he suddenly vanished, his dagger having hit the ground far, far away.

Suddenly, the Overlord began to convulse. He fell down to his hands and knees, his face twisting and his body slowly turning mist once more. The mist seemed to encompass his body, and when it faded, it seemed the first figure was back. In this light, his age truly showed; he was not much older than Sun, perhaps a few years at most. When he stood up, he once more had two hands, and rubbed his jaw slightly.

"You…"

The man turned, his purple eyes landing on Sun. Sun's gaze was darkened by his dangling hair, and he held his sword with tight hands. Slowly, he looked up towards the man, his expression filled with a confused anger he could only direct at the one standing in front of him.

"What are you?" Sun growled, "What sort of man would share a body with such a foul being?"

"You understand nothing, Sun…" The figure slowly inhaled, "Three years, Sun. I've spent three years training, practicing, learning my body, learning my powers. Today, you have seen my control over shadow, just as your weapon has over light. Three years of planting dark matter into Ninjago for this day. Three years of being alone, of finding out how the world never even missed me. You are everything that I would have been, Sun. And today, I show that my will is stronger than that of the forces in this world that would wipe me out."

"Stop spouting on about that!" Sun snarled, "You just murdered my team, my uncle, father, and you turn into yourself without any reaction?"

"Murder? You misunderstand my intentions," He shook his head, "Nya will have likely caught them after you sent that signal to the bounty with that massive flash of light. And Garmadon will land wherever that dagger of his lands. Wu is mine now… he will reside with the other threats I have removed from Ninjago. You are too naive to know what Krux would have done. Nor Chen, nor Pythor, nor anyone you have never seen. I will protect Ninjago, as I know you ninja never could. I will save this land, and I will do so through fear. This will be my power. I will rule this land, and you will be there to witness it. I will be your Emperor."

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Sun raised his sword to the sky, "I have the strength to defeat you! You will never threaten Ninjago while I draw breath in my body!"

With a shout, Sun drew as much light into his sword as he could. The entire area seemed to go nearly vantablack as his sword became a glowing flare to pierce the darkness. Sun poured all he had into the sword, all he could muster, all of his strength. When he felt he had pushed to his limit, he tried to push further, to give all he had to take out this evil foe in a single slice.

Suddenly, Sun's body went cold. His sword stopped glowing and fell from his hand, the light extinguishing from it. The figure held his staff with the tip pointed against Sun's chest. Dark matter was seeping around the staff, and just the contact made Sun feel like his very essence was being drained out of him. He pulled it back, causing Sun to fall to the ground, stunned.

"I was like you, once…" The figure frowned, "Not anymore. I suggest you run before the dark matter of my palace fully corrupts all you are. I have withheld its effects for you until now,and I have shown you my power. My domination is absolute. Go, Sun. Live your life out there, make a world where you can live underneath my rule without ever raising your head, and I will allow for you to be happy. Continue to fight me, and I will make every waking moment of your life about me. You will never be free of the burden that you and your team could never defeat me, and you will live your life as a failed rebel in my empire. I am your Emperor. Now… goodbye."

With that, he grabbed Sun by the chest and casually slung his body over the side. Sun's stunned form was unable to do anything as he went falling through the air. As he watched, the entire surface they'd fought on melted like liquid, and slowly, it began to reform. As though to overlook his empire, He slowly sculpted a throne, a massive one that reached up to the sky. The back reached all the way up to the dark cloud above, and the sides spread out like spiderwebs onto the ground. The seat where he sat was several feet above the ground, and once he sat in it, it glowed a sickly purple. It was the last thing Sun saw before he heard the sound of jets, and his back struck something solid and caused him to black out.

* * *

"Sun… Sun! Sun, please, wake up!"

Slowly, Sun opened his eyes to see Nya anxiously standing over him. As he saw her, Nya let out a gasp of relief and quickly rushed over to a monitor, looking over some readings. Once she had, she rushed back and smiled widely.

"Thank goodness… Sun, you're okay!" Nya reached out and lightly drew his body into a hug. Sun's chest tightened as she held onto him, but he smiled nonetheless. That was, however, until he felt the pain in his body, and he slowly groaned to try and sit up.

"Woah, don't take it too fast there…" Nya placed her hand on his chest gently, "You're in no condition to be moving around .We kinda had to catch you with the Bounty and… you hit it hard. It's a miracle that it didn't paralyze you. It took a lot of work to save your legs, trust me."

"My… legs…" Sun looked down towards his legs. When he did, however, he saw his chest was exposed and the left side was completely wrapped in bandages. Nya, seeing he laid eyes on them, slowly shook her head.

"Something… happened there," Nya mumbled, "You're going to have a scar. It's… harmless from what I can see but I can't get it off. I can only do so much with the supplies on the Bounty."

Sun already knew what it was. He already felt what it was. It was where his body had been touched by pure concentrated dark matter. He already knew there would be a dark mark right there, a reminder that he'd been defeated with nothing more than a single little touch.

"Where are… the others…" Sun gasped out. His chest felt tight. Perhaps falling onto a ship's deck had done that to him as well.

"They're all recovering… they had an even worse fall than you did…" Nya looked down, "It's going to be awhile until any of them wake up."

"Sun…" Garmadon's voice came from Sun's left. He turned to see the master sitting beside him, a distant look in his eyes.

"Uncle…" Sun whispered, "You're okay… thank goodness."

"Yes… I am," Garmadon looked down, "I'm certain you do not need me to recount the events."

"I remember them very clearly," Sun nodded his head, only to regret it as it disturbed his body, "We lost… badly."

"Ninjago has been conquered, Sun," Garmadon slowly inhaled, "Whoever this Overlord person is, they did it without resistance. It took only him corrupting a few citizens with dark matter to force the rest to comply. We're currently hovering over the remains of Chen's island just to stay out of his wrath. It seems that his plan succeeded."

"No… but… we trained…" Sun coughed, "It can't, be over…"

"It isn't over, Sun," Garmadon stood up slowly, "As we speak, we are gathering those that would stand up to the Overlord's rule. We will have ourselves a rebellion until we can free Ninjago from his grasp. Mark my words, Sun, we will take back Ninjago and free your father."

"Thank you, Uncle," Sun groaned again, "I'm going to rest. Please, see to it these rebels, are greeted…"

"As always, Sun…" Garmadon took a few steps away from the bed. Before he exited the room, he looked back to the bed, then to the door, sighed, and stepped out.

"You should get more rest, Sun," Nya suggested, "We'll discuss the details later. Right now you need to focus on getting better, do you understand?"

"Yes, I see, Nya…" Sun closed his eyes, "Thank you…"

With that, Nya stepped away to tend to the others. As she did, Sun slowly closed his eyes, letting the sleep wash over him once more, his mind lost in a sea of thoughts as he drifted back into sleep.


	7. Monty - Collision

"Ah, Garmadon," Chen walked up beside the Sensei in the middle of the main lobby, "So glad to have you here. How have you been enjoying your all-expenses paid, no room stay on my island?"

Garmadon didn't respond to Chen at first. He was staring at the new change in bracket. All of the remaining Elemental Masters in the tournament were there as well, looking over the change with a similar amount of confusion. The ninja, Morro included, were the ones most shocked by the change.

"Chen," Garmadon turned, "What is the meaning of this?"

"What is the meaning of this?" Chen pouted, "Whatever do you mean, my former pupil? I never said that the bracket was set in stone."

"Morro was not meant to fight tonight!" Garmadon growled, "You have done this deliberately."

"Did I?" Chen paused, "I'm sure everything will become clear enough as time passes."

"You cannot do this, Chen," Garmadon took a step towards the man, "I will not let you alter destiny like this."

"Do you truly care for Morro so much that you would disrupt any entire tournament just to stop him having an early bout?" Chen cocked his head, "Or is it perhaps the other combatant that you worry about?"

"I don't care," Monty called out from the crowd, "What are you all gawking at? It's just a change in bracket."

The group turned to the ghost. Monty had fought in two battles, and both of them had left a rather… awful taste in their mouths after seeing them. His first battle against Tox had been a wash, one that was brutal to watch but left her with most of her limbs working. When it had come time for him to fight Chamile, however, she'd been visibly terrified the entire match. What had started out as a simple game had rapidly turned into her having bullet wounds in each limb of her body. It hadn't been over after that, though, and the image of what Monty had taken his sweet time in doing with wind had left the majority of the spectators sick to their stomachs.

"You can't fight Morro!" Kai protested, having stayed in after tricking Karlof, "We all saw what you did to those two. How do we know that you won't go too far?"

"Chen said you had to win your matches by either completing the goal or making your opponent unable to fight," Monty gave Kai a dark look, "I'm pretty sure death is included in that."

"Why you!" Jay tried to lunge at Monty, but Monty raised a hand and unleashed a gust of wind that barreled Jay over.

"Now, now!" Chen raised his voice, letting all know that he was indeed there, "Let us save that anger for the actual match, yes? Monty's opponents are perfectly alive and kicking! Morro, you have no issues with this change in bracket, do you?"

Morro turned, wearing the green tribal robes that Chen had crafted for all of his team. He looked to Chen, then to Garmadon, his team, and finally to Monty. His iron gaze didn't falter as he slowly nodded his head to Chen. Chen's grin widened.

"Then it is decided!" Chen giggled, "Tonight after dinner, you will all come to witness the battle of Monty versus Morro! Oohhh I can't wait! I'm sure it'll be quite a 'breeze' for one of you, hehe!"

The room filled with hushed whispers about the upcoming match. The ninja stood behind Morro, giving Monty long glances. Monty simply yawned and pulled himself up from where he'd been leaning against the wall, stalking towards Morro. As the two of them made eye contact, Monty averted his gaze, shrugged, and walked by the entire group. Just to spite them, he made sure to physically pass through several spectators, passing a collective chill through them.

Soon, the group dispersed throughout the building back to their rooms to rest or train for their upcoming matches. Soon, it was Garmadon and Chen left in the lobby. Garmadon moved over to stand by the bracket, looking at the two faces that were now pitted against one another. The clicking of Chen's staff as he walked over to Garmadon echoed through the room as he moved and put an arm around Garmadon's shoulder. It took all Garmadon had not to throw Chen away.

"I can understand your concern here, Garmadon," Chen sighed, "After all, it is rather hard to watch your pupil go to fight, especially if you never got to see them leave the nest!"

"I have no idea what you are talking about, Chen," Garmadon stated firmly, "Morro is as much my pupil as any of the others. I have no worries about his performance come tonight."

"Stubborn as ever I see," Chen let go of Garmadon, then began to walk away. He stopped just before he reached the doors to leave the building, speaking over his shoulder, "You know, there is a saying. In times of war, fathers bury their sons. In times of peace, sons bury their fathers. So… been in any good wars lately?"

Garmadon turned around as Chen threw the doors open, cackling to himself as he did. Garmadon's words caught in his throat, leaving him only able to watch as Chen walked away, leaving him with only the lingering feeling of a secret exposed, and of the upcoming battle to come.

* * *

While it was possible for ghosts to eat, Monty didn't find much pleasure in it. He could taste the food, but he got nothing out of eating. It was the same when it came to drinking with Ronin; he could taste the hardest possible drink but never get drunk. Thus, while everyone was going to get dinner, Monty had decided to head down to the new arena that Chen constructed just for their fight. It was on his way down the long ornate hallways of the palace that Chen called his own that he encountered a figure standing in his way.

"Move," Monty waved his hand at Morro, "I'm told people feel death coming when I walk through them. Let's not hasten that feeling for you tonight."

"I'm not going to hold back on you during our fight," Morro stated firmly, his eyes narrowed, "You made clear that you intend to kill me tonight. If that's the case, I think you should know that I'm not going to let that happen."

"Oh, really now?" Monty stopped walking, cocking his head, "And here I thought you'd just sit back and let me shoot you fifty or so times."

"You hate me for a reason that I cannot understand," Morro continued, "You hated me from the minute we first met. I don't know why you do, or why you are with Ronin, or how a ghost like you even sticks around in Ninjago, but I won't let any of those thoughts cloud my judgement. You should know that tonight, I won't let you win."

"Why not just tell me when you're going to come at me in battle too?" Monty crossed his arms, "If you're so nervous that you have to tell me all this, you shouldn't step in that arena tonight."

"You know what Chen here is doing," Morro stepped forward, "You know that he's taking all of our elements, you know he's trying to do something with them. We don't have to fight. We could refuse to and force Chen to call it a draw. His entire tournament could break down right now if we just-" Morro stopped at the raised pistol Monty now had aimed at his head.

"I don't care about what Chen's doing," Monty cocked the pistol, "What makes you think that I would care if his entire tournament falls apart or not?"

"Because I know that you're a good person, or you once were," Morro starred the barrel down without fear, "You came with us to the Dark Island. You tried to convince Garmadon to back down his armies. You were there when I fought the Overlord. You were willing to do good in Ninjago. You're only pretending to be the bad guy."

"So what?" Monty growled, "It doesn't matter if I'm pretending or not. Ronin and I have done things you guys would throw us in jail for. All that stuff I did to Chamile? She left us in the Frozen Wastes that entire time you dealt with that stupid Golden Master crap. That was just me paying her back for stranding Ronin and I up there. What other proof do you need that I'm a bad guy here?"

"The fact that you didn't kill either Tox or Chamile, even when you say you hate them as much as you do," Morro countered, "You could have killed us too, if you really wanted. You haven't pulled that trigger, even if you hate me. You could just avoid this entire battle, right now, but you won't do it."

"Maybe I just want to make it as public as I can," Monty offered, "This isn't something you can weasel out of. I plan to kill you, Morro. I hate you more than anyone else in this entire stupid world. The only thing holding me back is the fact I want everyone to see me do it."

"So you claim," Morro sighed, "I was hoping that we could come to some sort of agreement here. This match will be one of the last ones before the semifinals. We have to do something about Chen before this gets out of control. You're the only one here that we know, Monty. We need your help, more than you realize!"

"Too bad, I don't work for free, and even if you had the money, I'd never work with you," Monty withdrew his gun and holstered it back under his armor, "I'll see you tonight, Morro."

Morro's fists gripped as what Monty guessed was his chance to end the tournament fell through. Monty didn't say anything, instead just walking through Morro. Morro indeed felt the chill go right to his bones, making him shiver as Monty left. Before Monty was out of earshot, Morro turned around and called out.

"I have no lack in my convictions, Monty!" Morro called out, "I will win this duel, for both my team, and for Ninjago! I won't let your personal feelings sway me tonight!"

"Good," Monty growled to himself as he walked away, "Neither will I."

* * *

Monty stood in a small room with a platform in the middle. He'd been denied being able to see what the arena looked like, instead having been told by Chen through Clouse that a match wasn't as fun if one side had an advantage. Instead, Monty had gone back to his room, checked the guns he was bringing, and been escorted to a small room underneath where the arena was. The platform in the middle would raise him up through the floor into the arena, if he understood right.

He did another count over what he had on him. Ten pistols hidden across his plate armor, each with one reload with them. He'd brought a shotgun and rifle, both strapped around his shoulders, meaning he'd have to focus to keep his body material to keep them there. He had the reloads for them around his belt. The only other weapon he had was a deepstone sword, which all combatants against Monty were given, since the only element that could actually kill him, water, wasn't at the tournament. He was checking over the blade Chen had given him for any imperfections when he perked up.

"I can hear you," Monty called out to the man walking down the stairs to his room, "You shouldn't be hiding like that."

"I am no more hiding than you are, Monty," Garmadon stated firmly as he entered the room, "We need to talk."

"I'm not going to spare Morro," Monty sighed, "I don't care that he's the Green Ninja and all that. He's my opponent, and he pisses me off. He'll suffer for that."

"I know after seeing you fight that trying to convince you is a futile gesture," Garmadon shook his head, "But you must consider what this fight means. Chen knows about you, Monty."

"Yeah, I picked up on that pretty quickly," Monty grumbled, "I'm your dirty little secret and we all know Chen just loves going hunting for those."

"You could end this tournament, and stop his plans," Garmadon walked up to Monty, "You could easily sneak into anywhere on this island. You could stop everything before it begins. You could do so much for us, Monty. Please, will you not at least consider the idea of doing this task for us?"

"I already told Morro, I don't care," Monty turned away from the Sensei, "He doesn't mean anything to me. Just like I don't mean anything to you."

"You mean everything to me, Monty," Garmadon put a hand on his chest, "It pains me to know what happened to you. There is so much that I regret, knowing the truth now. I wish we could mend our relationship. I wish I'd never left you to fall down this path. I wish I could have stopped whatever happened and raised you, even if I was still corrupted by evil. I wish… I wish to know my son better."

Monty winced hearing that word. He turned to Garmadon, a flame of anger in his eyes. For a few moments, his hand moved towards one of his hidden pistols, wanting to pull it out and fire. When he finally got a hold of himself, he looked up with his normal apathetic gaze and scoffed.

"I'm not your son," Monty turned away, "Your 'son' died, a long time ago. He died in the middle of a desert, looking for some stupid tomb. He doesn't mean anything to you. I'm a ghost that escaped the Cursed Realm and shacked up with Ronin to make a living. That's it. Don't associate me with that stupid kid that died. I'm not him, and I never will be."

"You are my son!" Garmadon stepped forward, "You mean everything to me! When I found out the truth after the Final Battle, when I finally realized what had happened, I regretted everything! I cannot stand to see either of you disappear tonight!"

"If you really were my father," Monty gave him a dark glare, "You wouldn't have let me die in the first place. You did this to me, _Garmadon._ You said it yourself on the Dark Island," Monty turned back around, deepening his voice to repeat those same words he'd heard in the Stone Army Camp, "'A dead ghost like you shouldn't be allowed to pretend to be anything like my son.'"

Garmaodn's eyes flashed with pain of their own. Monty felt a twinge of guilt inside of him, but he held firm. Garmadon finally tore his gaze off the ghost, sighing and nodding his head. Just that motion alone felt as though Monty had stuck his solidified hand in boiling water, scalding all across his emotions. He forced himself, however, not to show any of the pain in his eyes, instead just staring Garmadon down.

"Yes," Garmadon turned around, "My son is dead. I wasn't there for him, and now, I never will be. Good luck in your match, Monty. I urge you to find the peace inside yourself to complete this match without resorting to the destruction of what you were meant to become."

Garmadon left the room. Monty didn't let himself turn around, call out to him, or say anything. It was better this way. He needed to leave Garmadon with no regrets, no uncertainty that he wasn't that stupid kid anymore. He needed to be sure that he didn't have a father that would miss him. He needed to make sure that he was, and would always be, Monty.

There was the sound of a buzzer in the room. Monty stepped forward and onto the platform, causing the symbol of the Anacondrai to flare up on its surface. After a few seconds, the platform began to rise. It was a long rise up, reminding Monty of Chen's love for trapdoors. A slot above him slid into the wall, causing light to flood the chamber. Monty didn't flinch.

With another flash, Monty emerged and got his first look at the arena. The arena was divided into 8 sections, and was circular in nature. The spectator stands were far above the arena, seated in a similarly circular fashion. The 8 sections were all clearly labeled by long grooves in the floor that divided them. The walls of the arena extended up, putting Monty essentially inside a large cage. When he looked up, he noticed that there was a filtering of light through a surface, meaning that they were encased in a transparent dome.

Morro was on the other side of the arena. He held no weapon other than the deepstone sword that Chen provided him. Monty stared him down. Chen's chair was above where Morro had emerged, with Clouse to one side and all of his cultists in seats around him. Monty attempted to figure anything else about the arena, only for the sound of Chen's chair blaring horns to make him stop.

"Welcome, spectators, to the match I know you've all been waiting for!" Chen called out, "Hehe!" He sat up, "Allow me to explain this arena to our fans!"

"This is the arena that I like to call… Time Trap!" Chen grinned, "And the way it works is… well, you'll all soon find out!"

"And why do they call it that, Chen?" Morro asked, directing a rather harsh glare to the man.

"You'll see in two minutes!" Chen giggled, "Are there any final words the combatants would like to say before we begin?"

Monty raised the sword towards Morro, pointing the tip directly towards him, "I'll hold nothing back against you, Morro. Green Ninja or not, only one of us is leaving the arena today."

"Only one of us indeed," Morro leveled his own blade, charging it with green power that crackled up and down its length, "This will be over soon, Monty."

"Well, seeing that our contestants are both rearing and ready to battle!" Chen raised his hand up in the air, "Let's get this match started proper then! Ahem!" Both contestants narrowed their eyes.

Chen shouted out, "Morro, Master of Energy! VERSUS! Monty, Master of Wind! Let this match…."

"Any last words, Green Ninja?" Monty growled out.

"I have no need for my last words," Morro shook his head, "Let's get this over with."

"BEGIN!"

Monty drew his deepstone sword, blasting wind from his feet and rocketing over towards Morro. Just as he reached him, he spun his body in a twist, causing his sword to stroke Morro's own and put pressure on his arm. Morro grunted with the pain of having the blade twisted. With a blast of green power from his blade, he sent Monty's blade backwards.

The ghost went right up into the air, then thrust his other hand out. He gripped his fist, causing a vortex to form around his hand. The wind around him pulled Morro towards him, unsteadying the ninja. Morro responded by forming an elemental shield around him, catching Monty's blade just above his head with it. Monty held the vortex on him and leapt from the ground, using it like a rope to swing behind Morro.

Morro turned around, and the two clashed blades briefly. Monty leapt into the air, spinning his body around with wind to violently slice down against Morro's guard. Morro braced his arms painfully and took each strike onto his sword, rattling his body. Monty sliced once, twice, thrice, and then shot straight up into the air on one foot. He spun around, pointing his body down and rocketing down to slice into Morro's guard. The sheer force sent Morro's arm reeling back, breaking his guard. Monty leapt horizontally in the air, and Morro saw the pistol in Monty's free hand a second before it fired.

With two bangs, Morro was sent down to the ground. He stood up, bleeding from two gashes in his right arm. Monty slid across the ground on his back and focused, sending a burst of wind from his back to rocket him to his feet. He fired the gun three more times at the stunned Morro. Morro formed another elemental shield, but Monty raced forward and sliced his sword into it. With four more wind-enhanced strikes, he broke through the shield and put the pistol right to Morro's face.

Just before Monty could fire, Morro's eyes widened. With his free hand, he shot up and grabbed Monty's wrist, blasting green power from it. The explosion threw them both backwards, pieces of the gun flying about the arena. Monty recovered first, sliding on his feet and looking to his right hand. His hand twitched as he felt actual pain from the skin being almost fried by power, though his hand showed no sign of damage. Morro groaned and forced himself up onto his feet, looking dazed but otherwise fine.

"You should know Wu owes me for every gun that you break," Monty snarled, "I'll make sure I keep a tab on the bullets it takes to kill you, too."

Morro said nothing. Instead, he reached down to pick up his deepstone sword, holding it in both hands and taking a deep breath. As he did, green power began to seep out of his body like an aura. It formed overtop of him, covering him until a light wrapped around his body. He raised his sword and brought it down in front of him, causing a green spark to burst from the blade.

"Cute," Monty raised his sword, then rocketed forward on one foot once more.

Monty shot straight for Morro once more, moving almost silently sans for the whistling of wind. Just as he was about to reach Morro, Morro raised his blade for a downward strike. Monty raced straight in front of the attack, then drew another pistol in hand and fired down towards the ground. His body shot away from the force of the bullet, rocketing him in a diagonal motion above Morro. Morro looked up to Monty, seeing him turn the gun and fire away from Morro. The combination of the two shots made Monty appear to teleport straight from in front of the blade to straight behind Morro. With a scoff, Monty plunged his sword straight into Morro's back.

As soon as the blade tip struck the power, green power shot straight into Monty's blade. The force stopped the strike from reaching Morro's skin. Morro turned, bringing his elbow straight up and down on the sword. He struck the flat of the blade, knocking it from Monty's hands. He turned to cleave his sword through Monty, who put the pistol to Morro's back. He fired straight into the energy shield, stumbling Morro and sending Monty flying backwards away from him.

"Now that isn't fun at all," Monty growled, seeing the bullet had been half-burned by the energy surrounding Morro. Morro turned to face him, panting as he did.

"Did you think I would make this an easy fight?" Morro shook his head, "I developed this technique knowing that we may come to blows. Your bullets can't hurt me now, Monty. My green power is covering my body like a bulletproof vest. As long as I draw power, you can't hurt me."

"You better have made that thing completely bulletproof," Monty reached onto his back, drawing the shotgun off and cocking it, "Cause I'll be going looking."

Suddenly, a horn went off. The two fighters looked up in confusion, with Morro realizing too late he'd taken his eyes off Monty and him pulling the trigger. The force of the shotgun shells going right into his chest threw Morro across the area, smacking his head against a wall. As he groaned and forced himself upright, Monty cocked the shotgun again and looked around, trying to see what happened. A moment later, his senses went off and he blasted wind desperately from his hands to rocket away from the sliver of the area that he stood.

Monty stared at the new development with momentary horror. Water had fallen straight from the ceiling, lining up in a perfect triangular form to cover one of the eight sections of the arena. Small metal dividers rose up from the slots in the floor to form a massive pool in the section, preventing anyone from staying dry by remaining inside of the waterfalls. In effect, Chen had just turned 1/8th of his arena into a death zone for the ghost.

"And that's why they call it Time Trap!" Chen shouted, "Because Time just _slips_ on by!"

Monty's hands shook. If that was right, there were 7 sections left. Two minutes per section, meant he had 14 minutes before this entire arena was covered in water. For Morro, that would be an inconvenience. For him, it would mean complete annihilation. He looked down to the deepstone blade that lay scattered across the arena. Chen was going to put pressure on him to kill Morro, or risk dying this fight… again.

"And don't any of you worry," Chen hit a button, suddenly causing all of the seats the onlookers held to start rotating around the circular view above the arena, "I wouldn't want you all to miss this fun action!"

Sensei Garmadon's hand gripped his chair. He gripped it hard enough that the wood began to splinter, and then the entire armrest's end snapped off. The sound brought the attention of the other ninja to him.

"Sensei?" Cole asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Garmadon inhaled, "...I worry for Morro's safety."

"Huh?" Jay leaned in, "Uhhh hello, that arena is totally filling with water! You know, a ghost's one and only weakness? And plus, Morro has a sword that can take him out! If anything, you should be worried about Monty."

Garmadon's other hand started to twist the wood on his chair, "No. Morro is an honorable fighter. Monty is not. He has no sense of boundaries. If Chen pushes him like this… he will likely retaliate in kind. Morro does not fight the way he does, and that puts him at a disadvantage."

"Don't worry, G," Kai smirked, "That's Morro we're talking about! He's got this."

"Yes… I'm sure that he does," Garmadon stated, then whispered, "I pray that he does."

Morro had finally gotten up from the shotgun blast, clutching his chest. Just because his energy stopped the force of the bullets from getting inside him, the impact still put the force of the attack into him. He wobbled his way up to his feet, forcing himself to calm down. It was all for the better he did, since a moment later he dove out of the way as Monty rocketed forward and nearly drove the butt of his shotgun straight into Morro's head.

Monty growled, pulling the shotgun's now ruined stock back from the rock wall and throwing his weight back. He spun in a cartwheel in the air, aiming the shotgun upside down and firing. While Morro slid out of the attack's way, Monty went flying away from Morro with the force of the blast. As he did, he spun around so his feet were pointed at Morro, holding the shotgun with them and firing the last round in the chamber with another pump. Morro ducked to the ground as bits of rock above his head scattered over him.

When the ghost landed, wind collected in his hands. His body began to glide over the ground, yet he was propelled forward like he was on top of ice. The wind in his feet let him 'skate' over the ground, and in turn reload the shotgun as he got closer to Morro. Before he could fire his attack, Morro retaliated by putting his hands together and firing a massive energy beam at Monty. Monty stuck his left foot out and slid around the arena's edge to dodge it. He went horizontal on the wall, still gliding over the surface while he completed his reload. He kicked off the wall, soaring straight in front of Morro and firing his shotgun as fast as he could.

Morro didn't take his chances with taking them head on. Instead, he dodged out of the way and raised his sword up, racing towards Morro's flying forward to deliver a strike to him. Monty, however, surprised him by grabbing the shotgun's barrel and swinging it directly towards Morro's side, striking his sword before he could swing it. Morro stumbled off to the side, just in time to see Monty skate his way in front of him and raise the shotgun up to club him directly on the head. Morro threw his hand up to the sky, green energy grabbing it and blasting it full of energy. The shotgun sparked, then broke in half directly in the barrel, making Monty's eyes light up in even more anger than before.

"We don't have to fight each other!" Morro shouted as he stepped back, his fists raised, "We can work together! Monty, you must have lost something in your previous life, let me know-"

"I'll never work with you!" Monty shouted back, "You're the one person in Ninjago I refuse to work with!"

Monty opened his palm, releasing a blast of wind to send Morro sliding backwards. Morro stopped himself by concentrating green power in his feet, then compressing it by stepping down on it. The force when it burst sent him towards Monty, his sword ready to cleave straight through the ghost. The sword was met with Monty holding up his rifle he'd unstrapped from his back vertically, trapping the sword's swing on it. Monty slid the rifle further up until the sword skipped down onto the space between the barrel's exit and bayonet. Monty pulled the trigger, making Morro's ears ring as the bullet struck his sword and knocked him back.

Morro wasn't given a chance to attack after that. Monty dropped the rifle and instead drew two more pistols, these pistols firing rapidly as he began to slide around the arena again. Morro dropped to one knee and held his sword in front of him, turning his body to take each of the blows of the bullets until Monty had exhausted two more streams of guns.

The horn sounded again. Monty froze in mid-attack, looking around to see where the next section was blocked off. The next section that went was two over from the one already. The section that was between them was trapped between the two, rendering now over a third of the arena now unusable for Monty. He looked up to Chen with barely restrained rage, but he was chatting up with Clouse for the moment.

"Monty!" Morro stood up, "You realize that this arena was not made to kill me. I only need to outlast you if I want to win. We need to work together if we want to both make it out of this."

"And doesn't Chen want something from me?" Monty snarled out, "He wouldn't get rid of me before he got what he needed!"

"He's just trying to make you scared!" Morro protested, "Why won't you listen to me, Monty?!"

"Shut it!" Monty shouted, using his wind to suck the rifle up from the arena to his hands and fire it off several times, "I don't need to hear anymore of your stupid pleases! I'm not like you! SHUT UP!"

Morro took the shots head-on. In the process, his green power shield broke apart. The force of taking so many bullets had finally exhausted his power. He didn't falter, however. He stood up calmly, panting and holding his sword out in front of him again. Monty, seeing his calm face, felt something inside of him boiling over even more than it already was.

"Tell me, Monty!" Morro shouted, "I know you have a place in this world! I want to know what it is!"

"What gives you the right to know?!" Monty shouted, firing the rifle again, "What makes you think I want anything to DO WITH YOU!?"

Suddenly, Morro formed an aura around his body. The ninja formed a glistening chestnut colored form around him, and when it burst forth, a massive hawk flew into the air. The proud and massive bird flew several times over the arena, its burning eyes resting on Monty. Morro fired a burst of elemental power to knock the bullets off course, giving the hawk time to shoot down straight for him.

The bird struck and fused right into Morro. In an instant, his body began to glow harder. He shut his eyes, opening them to reveal the angular shape in them. He thrust his hands out, revealing that they now had talons on them. He grew a small bird tail, and feathers glistened over his body. He stared down towards Monty as his eyes zoomed in onto him.

"Finally got you to use that card, huh?" Monty scoffed, firing another blast of his rifle.

Morro raised his hands up. Feathers from his arms shot from his body, soaring and then arcing down in front of him. His eyes zoomed out as he sent the feathers straight towards him. The feathers were somehow sharper than even bullets, for they burst in the air as the feathers cut through them and shot right through Monty's body to embed themselves in the wall behind him.

"You knew him!" Morro declared, his voice distorted as feathers flew from his arms and began to cover his sword, increasing its sharpness, "You knew Garmadon! You went to him alone on the Dark Island while I was finding my True Potential. You know more than you're willing to admit! Tell me why you won't let us know anything about you!"

"You don't get to ask that," Monty snarled, "You, of everyone in Ninjago, of everyone to ever exist, doesn't get to ask that!"

"Then I'll make you answer me, regardless!" Morro ran forward slicing his sword right through the air. While his chi didn't affect his physical stats, just the sound of the sword now whistling through the arena was like a ring. Monty raised his rifle up to try to block the attack, but the sword sliced clear through it. It continued on into the ground, carving a perfect gash in the stone underneath them. Morro shot his bird-like eyes towards Monty, zeroing in on him and spinning the blade around for a surprise strike.

Monty shot upwards with wind, sliding his way along the outward wall of the top of the arena until he was just above the attack. Before he could draw another gun to attack, Morro had flapped his arms, sending him straight up in the air towards Monty. Monty threw his head back, narrowly avoiding the blade cutting through him. Monty's eyes widened in fear as he blasted away with wind from Morro.

Morro refused to let up his attacks. The chi-infused ninja flapped his arms, shooting straight towards Monty with each and every strike. Morro pressed too fast for Monty to draw more guns and put him at a disadvantage, while Monty simply blasted him with wind or flew away to try to get an advantage. The two almost seemed to dart across the arena like blurs, stray feathers flying off an striking deep into the rock as Morro pressed assault.

"You are not just the Master of Wind!" Morro declared, "Tell me what you are! You can tell me, of everyone in Ninjago! True me!"

Monty's eyes darkened. He reached down into his belt, grabbing two small marbles. When Morro swung again, he thrust the two marbles right onto Morro's chest. They activated a moment later, causing Morro's entire body to begin frying. Morro let out a momentary cry of pain before several of his feathers shot out and arced down to knock the devices off of his body.

Monty didn't let up yet. He reached out, grabbing hold of Morro's sword hand. He stared Morro in the eyes for a brief moment, then he yanked his arms down. He twisted Morro's body, throwing him off his flight and sending him towards the ground. Right before they landed, he shot his other hand out, blasting wind into the rocks. The action jerked them up in the air, giving him time to take advantage of Morro's stunned face to slam him into the rocks.

"Trust you?" Monty's voice was deep and low, slamming his foot into Morro's back. Chen sat forward in his seat, his smile growing to almost silly proportions.

Morro struggled against his pin for several seconds, gasping out, "Yes! "Monty, you fought alongside me before. You have some stake in the safety of Ninjago. You are a good person, somewhere in there. Trust me to-"

"Trust you?" Monty repeated, his tone growing filled with utter and undistilled venom, "You want me to trust the one person that took everything away from me?"

"You… what are you talking about?" Morro began to focus his attention on more feathers, "Monty, I haven't done anything to you! How can you judge me for something I haven't done?!"

"You…" Monty raised his eyes up, staring at Morro with trembling hands, "I hate you. I hate you more than anyone else in Ninjago. It wasn't enough to kill me. It wasn't enough to strip away everything I cared about. It wasn't enough to make me unable to feel anything. It just had to go… to YOU!"

Monty drew two pistols from his armor, cocking them and swinging them into place to fire at Morro's head. Morro shot his feathers up behind him, slicing them straight into the pistols and sticking out of them like pieces of metal. Instead of trying to fire, Monty swung the pistols straight at Morro, pummeling him with the two metal objects in his hands. Morro's vision was rattled as Monty slammed him into the ground and began to ram his fists, guns in hand, down onto the ninja. He threw Morro onto his back to get on top of him and pummel him directly.

"YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!" Monty shouted in rage, "EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING I COULD HAVE BEEN, WENT RIGHT TO YOU! You got everything that I wanted! Everything I should have been! It isn't fair! Nothing about this world is fair! HOW IS IT FAIR YOU STOLE THAT FROM ME TOO?! HOW IS IT FAIR?! TELL ME, MORRO, TELL ME HOW IT'S FAIR!"

Morro's talons shot up, grabbing hold of Monty's hands and yanking them apart. When Monty tried to force his hands together to fire point blank at Morro's face, Morro threw his head back, flapping his arms to send them soaring across the arena floor. Monty let go of his guns and rolled off to the side, drawing another gun to point sideways at Morro. The two guns that Morro had burst apart into scrap as his green power blew them apart.

The horn sounded again. Monty looked up just in time to roll out of the way as the section he was in filled with water. The section was directly adjacent to the last segment that filled up, meaning now that exactly half the arena was now inaccessible for him. A perfect half section was all that was left for him. The seats above rotated over the sections that were filled with water, with Chen positioning himself right in the center.

"This is so juicy!" Chen laughed, "That ghost might even do my work for me! Isn't this fun, Clouse?"

"It's the height of the Tournament thus far, Master," Clouse stated nasally.

"Hear that, Garmadon?" Chen called out to the man, grinning directly at him, "This is shaping up to be the best match so far!"

The ninja once more turned to look at Garmadon. The man wasn't focused on anyone else. His gaze was purely focused on the battle that was taking place under him. Monty stood up, looking at the wall of water that divided the arena for him. There was one section inside of those three that wasn't filled with water, but he wouldn't risk getting to it. In the time it took him to see the wall of water rising, Morro had gotten back up to his feet.

"I never took anything from you, Monty," Morro stated firmly, standing up and pointing his talons at the ghost, " How can I take anything from you without even knowing you?!"

Monty didn't speak, instead he sharply inhaled and shouted, opening a compartment on his belt and dragging out a piece of metal. He swung it straight towards Morro, who heard the whistling of the razor thin wire it was attached to and leapt into the air just in time. The piece of metal stuck into the wall behind him, however, and Monty gave it two tugs quickly and caused the thing to start retracting. As he shot towards the wall, dragged along with his lack of mass, he drew another pistol and pointed it forward as he rammed right into Morro. The gun went off four times as both he and Morro went skidding over the ground.

The ninja quickly sat up, seeing the attack at nearly point blank range. Morro, however, had his eyes widened as he held his hands up, feathers flattening into a sort of shield for him. By now, he was barely able to hear with the ringing of having so many gunshots going off right beside him. He wasn't given any time to recover though, as a cable suddenly wrapped around his left arm. Monty had shot out a line from one of his gauntlets. Before Morro could fight back, the wire electrified, causing him to scream silently as his body was electrocuted…. again.

Monty raised the already fired pistol. The horn went off for the fourth time… twice. Monty shot his head to look for where it was going to happen. Right next to the sliver that had first gotten swallowed up, two more sections were filled, one after the other. Now, they were down to an exact quarter of the arena. Monty backed up towards the wall, taking his hand off the electrocution button long enough for Morro to get free.

"Oopsies!" Chen informed them, "My hand slipped. Oh, well two for the price of one! I did let you go on a bitttt long there with that little air show after all, so it works out!"

Morro planted his sword into the ground. Slowly, he got back up again. He had already been beaten up and down this arena, but he wasn't ready to give up just yet. Right now, he needed to win against Monty. Monty wasn't even looking at him. Instead, the ghost was staring at the water in genuine fear in his eyes. Morro had never seen the ghost like this before, but he didn't let up.

"Like I said, Monty," Morro gasped out, still trying his best to hear himself over the ringing, "I just have to outlast you. Chen…. Chen doesn't care about you. Or me. We're just pawns to him. We're playing along!"

Monty shot his gaze back at Morro. That fear inside of him had already combined with the anger, it seemed, for the ghost simply rammed his way right back into battle. He rapidly fired his gun off, slamming them into Morro before he blasted wind from his hands to avoid going right into one of the walls of water. There wasn't space to work with. Chen had limited his ability to fly. He… he couldn't win like this, not with his powers.

"Give up, Monty," Morro huffed out, "Concede, and Chen will just take you like he has everyone else."

"You can't stay fused like that for long!" Monty stated, his voice shaking, "I just… I just need to break you out of that stupid form and then you won't be able to fight me at all!"

"Do you value your pride that much?" Morro growled, "Do you really care so much about being somehow bigger than me to try this?"

Monty looked up towards the ceiling. As he did, he just nodded his head, "I care about my pride more than I care about what you stole from me."

Morro lowered his head. He was nearing the limits of his patience, or so Monty felt. Morro was soon going to snap. Monty awaited for Morro to ready another round of his strange feathers at him and distract his shots. Instead, the aura formed once more around Morro, and Morro stumbled back into the wall as his hawk soared up and vanished. Morro rubbed his head, sweating all over from effort. After a moment, he formed green energy in his hands, shaking his head as he did. Monty rocked his pistol in preparation for him.

"Chen says use it or lose it… I don't need that to defeat you," Morro inhaled, "Monty. You refuse to even listen to a word I say. Is it truly your wish to die, again?"

"I'm already dead," Monty spat, "I don't have anything left to lose."

There was the sound of a spring going off. Suddenly, the sword that Monty had lost came flying back into the arena. Monty blasted it with wind as it neared him, seeing it dripping with water. He dried it off with a blast of wind, hefting its weight in his hand.

"I thought you might like that," Chen giggled, "Now FIGHT!"

Monty looked down to the sword. He nodded his head. He held the pistol in one hand, and the sword in the other. He took his fighting stance. Morro slowly did the same. The two of them stared each other down, both of them filled with anger. Both of them fighters, and neither of them willing to budge.

The two raced forward. The sound of swords clashing against each other filled the arena. Gunshots went off, making the audience lean in to see where the attack landed. New grazes formed all over Morro's body. Their swords clashed against each other over and over again, moving fast enough to almost look like blurs. Monty wildly flipped and slashed around Morro, who stood firm and took his attacks while countering with his own. Their moves became too fast for the onlookers to even fully see.

Monty ran out of ammo for his pistol. Instead, he shot his hand forward, grabbing the bullet hole in Morro's shoulder and squeezing hard. Morro shrieked out in pain, and in turn he slashed his sword out just an inch away from Monty's face. Monty gripped even harder, dragging Morro down towards the floor. Morro, in sheer pain and desperation, attempted to yank him off.

The ghost refused to let go. His foot shot out, knocking the sword out of Morro's hand and onto the ground. Morro threw a punch towards Monty, but the blast went straight through him. Monty twisted the arm's wound, causing Morro to screech out in pain even louder.

"Let…. go of me!" Morro shrieked in pure need.

"I'm winning this match," Monty spat, "Even if you have to die to do it." His other hand began to reach for a pistol.

"I said… let… GO OF ME!" Morro shouted one more time, his body bursting full of green power. The power shot straight out and into Monty like some sort of electric bolt, sending him flying directly backwards. He remained on his feet, stopping just in time to see he was now standing in a different one of the two sections that remained.

The horn sounded. Monty looked up just in time to see the massive wave of water coming down on him. The ghost had no time to react before the water completely consumed him, cutting him off from Morro's vision. Morro suddenly felt cold all over as he stood up, clutching his wounded arm.

"MONTY!" Morro shouted, extending his hand forward.

"Oohhh… a little anticlimactic, but I'll take it!" Chen declared, "We have a WIN-"

Suddenly, Morro was slammed down onto the ground by a burst of wind. Chen stopped mid call, looking down to see what had just transpired. Monty's hand extended from the water, with a strange filtering of light moving through it. Monty stood inside the wall of water, his eyes wide and panting heavily. Around his body was a thin later of wind, rapidly spinning around him and knocking the water aside like a waterproof film. He was heaving, his entire body quaking in the most display of fear Morro had ever seen from the ghost.

As Morro looked on, Monty slowly lowered his arm. He looked up towards the top of the arena where the water was falling, his eyes focusing on the sunlight from above the arena filtering in. Slowly, his terrified expression melted back, but his open lips remained. He looked back down, raising his hands up.

"So that's what it was like…" Monty whispered, "I'd forgotten what it felt like to feel like you were about to die."

"Monty…" Morro stood up, "See? See now? You have more power than you know. I don't know anyone that could react that fast! If you stood with us against Chen, then you could-"

Monty gave a tiny chuckle. His lips curled into a little smile. He reached into his armor, drawing the first of his last two pistols. With his other hand, he reached down to pick up his sword again. He turned that smile towards Morro, along with his loaded pistol. The look in Monty's eyes was enough for Morro to know the fight wasn't over.

"...I know how this is going to end, Morro," Monty inhaled, "Only one can remain."

Monty shot straight out of the water, keeping that insane smile on his lips. He slashed his swords out along the walls of water as he ran, slicing it to send water right into Morro's eyes. The ninja doubled over, unable to see his attack through the pain. Monty slammed his attack into Morro, pinning him up against the arena wall. With his sword hand, he pinned Morro up against the wall. Morro gasped out, desperately kicking to try to get out of the grip.

"You'll know what it's like to feel like you lost everything," Monty stated firmly, "I'm going to make sure of that."

Monty thrust his pistol up at Morro's face. Morro kicked the wall, throwing his head out of the way just in time for a fresh hole to form in the wall where his head was. With a burst of green power, Morro freed himself, landing on the now small sliver of territory they had to fight. He reached forward, grabbing Monty's gun hand and putting his palm over the barrel. Just before Monty could fire, he twisted his hand towards, aiming the gun at the ground and letting him unload his clip there. Morro brought his leg up and kicked Monty's arm, knocking the pistol out of it and leaving just the sword for him to deal with.

Morro and Monty clashed once more. The arena was small, and Morro tried to force Monty up against the arena wall rather than the water. Monty didn't let up his attacks. He slashed his sword wildly, the smile starting to fade from his lips as he did. The more the two of them clashed, the more that Monty's smile made itself known it wasn't going away.

Morro finally flung Monty back. Before Morro could counterattack, Monty reached into his belt and threw something on the ground. The smoke filled up the arena. Morro held his sword up defensively within the cloud. He looked around desperately, attempting to see where Monty was. It wasn't until he heard the whistling of Monty's sword he knew. Morro sliced and caught it just in time, locking their blades one last time.

"This is it, Monty!" Morro shouted, "You're about to die! Please! Work with me to help stop Chen!"

"Only one of us is going to move on today, Morro," Monty spoke calmly, "Only one can remain."

Morro knew the timer was coming, his eyes suddenly filling with green power. With his last push, Morro threw Monty down onto the ground one final time. Monty's sword went flying off into the water around them. The ghost paused for a moment, looking down at the section of ground he was on and shifting his weight on it. Monty drew his final pistol, pointing it right towards Morro's head. Morro raised his sword, ready for the final strike.

The horn sounded.

Water poured in from the ceiling, dispersing the smoke and filling Morro's vision. He was thrown off his feet as the water sloshed him around, trapping him and sending his vision into turmoil. He lost his grip on his sword as he was thrown about in the water. He was thrust against the wall, letting out one last gasp as he did and fell to his knees.

Morro heard the sound of something opening. He opened his eyes, seeing a massive trapdoor in the floor open up. The water began to drain out of the arena, sucked down it like a drain. Morro fell to the ground, completely soaked and gasping for air. As the last of the water drained from the arena, he slowly pulled himself up and looked around.

The arena was empty.

"Monty?" Morro asked quietly.

Nothing was there. The arena floor, now completely soaked, was filled with broken pieces of guns and the two swords, scattered across the arena. Morro used the wall for support as he straightened himself up, looking over the arena in pure confusion.

"WINNER!" Chen shouted, pointing to Morro, "Master of Energy, moves on! It looks like we've already taken care of our loser!"

Morro stared at the empty arena, slowly getting up as he did in a daze. As he looked around, the others in the crowd began to cheer for him. The ninja and Garmadon, however, were silent. Chen turned his gaze towards Garmadon, giving him a cheerful smile. Garmadon remained completely silent, unable to tear his eyes off the sight.

"It… is done," Garmadon whispered, "The deed… is done."

"It looks like he hadn't fought in any wars after all," Chen grinned as he saw Garmadon wordlessly get up, "Well… let's make sure this is a start to a good one then, shall we, Clouse?"

* * *

Zugu walked down the hallway, hoisting up the keys he wore on his belt .Behind him, Master Chen walked, his staff of elements glowing with a newly gained power. Tonight's ceremony had been a rather fulfilling one, and he was eager to talk to the one they had thrown back now that they had used him.

"I'm telling you, Monty," Chen declared as the two approach a massive black stone cell, "Trapdoors really are the way of the future! I'm sure you really enjoyed them, didn't you?"

The ghost lay within his cell, not saying anything. The cell was a complete cube of nothing but vengestone. A hole in the ceiling led a trapdoor all the way up to the arena that he'd fought in. Monty remained silent on the matter.

"You really did a good thing here today… for him!" Chen declared with a flourish of his cape, "I'm surprised you actually threw the match! I would have thought mister 'nothing to lose' would have taken him out right away! But then again… you really aren't that type of person, are you, Monty? Did the fear of death really get to you that much?"

Monty looked up at Chen, an apathetic gaze on his face. Chen leaned his back up against the door, turning his head behind his massive headdress to look at Monty as he waved his hands and continued talking.

"I'm surprised you ever felt that trapdoor, you landed in just the right spot for it! And you even let yourself fall into it. I mean, sure, the falling water was one thing, but that nifty little wind shield you used I didn't expect! I'd love to have someone that's as versatile as you in my factory! But sadly, I can't afford to have them all getting any _ghosts_ of an idea1 Hehe!"

"So what?" Monty chuckled, "You leave me here in this cell for all time? You do realize that I can't starve to death like anyone else you enslave, right?"

"I keep collections, Monty," Chen leaned forward, "And after seeing that display, I have to have you for it! Seeing who you really are is so simple once you listen. I have a shadow of the true Green Ninja, now permanently mine! Forever! I'll have to make another one of those glass deepstone cage's just to display you like a trophy for all time."

"Good luck with that," Monty turned around, away from Chen, "I'll be around long after you kick the bucket."

"We'll just see about that," Chen giggled, "Without your wind, you don't have any chance to escape. So you just stay here and have fun for eternity! I'll be back… sometime!"

With that, Chen giggled his way out of the cavern. Monty waited long after Chen had left with his guards, before deciding to look out the small window that Chen had provided him to see the catacombs where Chen's operations took place. After a few moments of looking, he scoffed and turned back around, laying his head down to pass the time by doing something he almost never did: sleep.


End file.
